Author: KDS

My experience with Vauxhall Motors company, Vauxhall dealer call Now Vauxhall and the car Antara

So where do I start in 2012 I was slightly young and a bit of an idiot.  Saw the advert 0% interest on all Vauxhall with 5 year free services (apparently that is only 4  free services Vauxhall maths )  100k  warranty etc.  It sounded a good deal so went to the dealer now Vauxhall Richmond and bought the biggest car they sell and add the Sat nav option for £1000 as well.  I got the car 1st-day car is terrible in the sense air bag cover at the A pillars not covered properly windscreen alarm was hanging around not stuck properly.  Sat Nav was an aftermarket part installed by the dealer that is fine If I been told that, no they let me believe it was a factory fitted kit.  it was so bad I couldn\’t change the time on the car. The dealer has poorly installed it.  none of the radio didn\’t work.  I have to take the car back the next week to the dealer to get this issues fixed. even then It wasn\’t resolved correctly. I just gave up and live with it. every time I take it there. they will keep the car for a day and don\’t do much and gave it back. I think the system they install is not very good o dealers don\’t know how to install correctly.

fast forward 6000 miles every week I check oil etc but don\’t check inner tires but for some reason, I did check on that day and found out it was almost worn out completely outer tires were fine.  clearly, the issue with the car took it to now Vauxhall dealer they were like it was a wheel balancing issue even though I didn\’t install both front tires. It was done by Vauxhall. Dealer wanted to charge me as it was Wear and tear. but my argument was it wasn\’t it was poorly installed tire by Vauxhall.  they were like I might have hit the herb that would have made it this way. high;y unlikely both side of the tire was worn in the same way. so I spoke to Vauxhall the company manufacture this car. all they did was spoke to the dear and the said the same thing.  I just paid it and gave up on it

fast forwarded few thousand miles with few minor issues like driver seat started shake etc then handbrake stop working on a hill it will roll back, hand brake light will come on but the car will go back took it to the dealer. They charged £160 to fix the issue as apparently, that was a  wear and tear as well. I knew this was a scam but allowed it. how I come to know is the same issue gave it to another dealer but put the car to MOT didn\’t say anything about this issue. Guess what they fixed it without a fee. exact same issue.  every time I services. nail on the tire scam happened as well. there is no way nail would have been on the tire. as I check air pressure even before I dropped it off, I ended up buying a spare wheel to stop this scam. only the nail get into the expensive tires on the car. Obviously, I can\’t prove as I didn\’t film the tires.

seafty recall apparently issues with some pipe gave the car fixed and they didn\’t record that so they called again for the same issue. another issue with engine cover they took that off and left the car without engine cover for entire winter will all the salt etc it\’s days are numbered

at this point I gave up on the car, company, and dealer and got rid of the car now went with a  good quality car. I would say no to  GM  and any Vauxhall cars.  If you are thinking to buy a Vauxhall,  think twice. you are better off buying a slightly older Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Mazda etc for the same money you get a better car. Vauxhall and GM cars are cheaper for a reason. People like me parking it in some dealers forecourts and running away. It\’s truly a terrible cars. Safety is not Vauxhall priority see how they dealt with ZAFIRA B Fire issue.  I can\’t image anything changed now.  If someone gave me a free Vauxhall car I will not take it.  I know Vauxhall now owned by Peugeot but can\’t think any thing going to change it. they will be still managed by same people and same dealer network.

 

 

 

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 mini smart watch review

Most of the smartwatches now on the market are just another screen for your phone. It\’s not a bad thing, but to me, I need a watch as a watch 1st,  I\’m a big fan of their pro-Trek line. I still have  2 Casio so call ABC watch one of them (Casio PRG-80L) since 2008,  it\’s solar. I didn\’t even have to change the battery.  The only thing I need to do is change the strap. send it to Casio UK they send it back with a new strap for very little money. 

Why I like this smart watch for starters it\’s not another screen for my phone it\’s working as a standalone product. Battery life is great I charge the watch every day but I always end the day with 50% left.  another thing I like about this watch is that it doesn\’t rely on Casio services for the phone to work. It has it\’s own ABC functionality along with mic and GPS.

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It\’s a great watch I wouldn\’t recommend to everyone. It doesn\’t have the features that other smart watches have like sending kisses and heart beats etc. as they don\’t run any backend services, you don\’t get pretty graphs on the online and see how you doing etc, you can export the data from the watch and do it yourself but no online services come from Casio. If it becomes popular someone else develops app for it. It\’s an android wear 2 phone with Casio skin and apps,  It doesn\’t have a heartbeat sensor. another annoying thing is the charging cable it\’s a special magnetic cable.  It\’st not massive issue, if you email Casio UK they will send you a new cable is 3 weeks. It\’s not expensive at all but still would have been good if they just used USB- c cable.

Overall it\’s a good reliable watch even on power saving mode it will show you data and time as they use dual layer screen. so another smartwatch thing is you have to move your wrist to see the time but on this one, you can see it all the time. I have attached the screen graph of how it looks all the time.

 

LeapFrog LeapStart Preschool/Primary School Interactive Learning System for Kids Review

LeapFrog are selling this as a two models one is LeapStart Preschool and other one LeapStart Primary School both are  same. It\’s just a sample book is different. each has appropriate sample book. Unit cost is about £34 but each book is about £10 but Mrs manage to buy the whole preschool books for £35 in here

I\’m very skeptic when it come to this things. I thought it will be like another gimmick kids product,  but they actually put a lot of thought on this, for starters no screen it\’s a real book you put in you have to connect the LeapStart unit to the computer and download the audio books and sync this audio books to the unit. It\’s very easy soon as you connect they will walk you through the steps and I downloaded the whole audio books even before we bought it. it\’s take double AA batteries so no charging troubles.

I tested the sample book with my 2 + years old daughter. she liked it. unit is very durable she dropped it many times.  carried around. the pen can take lot of beating too. 1st book I bought was leap start preschool STEM  I actually paid the full price as I bought that on amazon.  My daughter loved it she actually enjoyed playing with it and I think she learned few things with out screens.  We sit with her and go through with her. Unit is designed for her to play on her own as it has audio book telling what to do etc. It\’s more fun for her to sit and go through with us (I think)

We thought her alphabet need improving. so now she now going though this  our lady doesn\’t likes it as much as the STEM book but she is learning fair bit on this.

We buy lot of things for kids some of them are surprisingly good. This is one of those products. not sure who designed and plan this up. but they done a good job on  this.

 

 

 

 

 

Otterbox commuter case for google pixel XL review

I actually wanted to buy the lifeproof cases for the phone but it\’s not avalable on the UK site and it will be very expensive to get them from US. so I decided to go with Otterbox commuter case. It\’s a good case bit bulky no waterproof  though but it will keep your phone safe from drops. On the other reviews you will read power button is bit tight and yes it\’s true but it\’s true for all new cases thought.  with google pixel you don\’t need to use the power button as well.  over all I\’m happy with it. and yes case will let you put edge to edge screen protector.

Google Pixel XL review

I was always been a fan of Sony mobiles. They did a good job of making a good phone with enough power and releasing  new phones every 6 month so I can buy the older model for cheaper. I don\’t like buying 2nd handphone phones.

Any way this Christmas I was given a google pixel xl 128 GB one.  this is the most expensive phone I ever owned. I was given  google daydream view headset  (Virtual Reality) as well.

1st I\’ll write about the phone. in one word amazing. It\’s really fast. My old sony z3+ had a snapdragon 820 CPU, but google pixel felt really fast compare to my old phone. operating system on it  is amazing as well. It\’s only  had the base google apps and nothing else. GPS is amazing even is central London. it\’s picks up location very quickly.  mobile signal is pretty good as well. I can get good signal to places where I couldn\’t (with O2) with other phones.

Only downside I can think of is it\’s a big phone. I bought a Otterbox commuter case   which makes it even bigger. if you don\’t  have a case it\’s very slippery phone. google assistant wasn\’t all that, I think it\’s not smart enough for UK yet.

google daydream view is better than I expected. It will come in handy when you making those long flights.

So far I haven\’t found any issues, If I do I will update this blog post

update 10/01/2017

I really enjoy watching google daydream view. It\’s can be just a normal youtube move makes it look like you watching it on a massive screen. quality is bit off  compare to real cinema

 

 

 

USB type C (USB-C) cable predicament

Now I have a google pixel xl  phone ( Christmas present ).It\’s uses a USB-C port.  I thought I will buy a  USB-A to USB-C cable so I can use all my exiting  wall/ car chargers etc.

It\’s not easy as I thought. google play store selling that cable for £25 so I looked in to other places.  You can get them cheap but apparently they don\’t meet to USB-C spec and might damage the device or charger.  google engineer call   Benson Leung done lots of research on this.

going by what he was saying it\’s safe to buy a USB-C charger with USB-C cable with known brands.  even to buy USB-C chargers from other phones like Microsoft Lumia 950 XL chargers, you can pick them up cheap.

Moral of the story is don\’t buy the cheap cables. It wont save you money.

 

arduino/genuino uno vs clones

I have tried all 3 type of arduino/genuino uno clone boards now. so going to write the pro and cons of all this

1st the genuine board from http://www.arduino.cc

\"Arduino

no issue at all very well built and do what says on the tin, only issue is £20 so it\’s bit much to try crazy experiments or even to leave it some where.

2nd one is a clone

\"Elegoo

It\’s exactly like the genuine board but build quality is ok but can\’t compare to the original but this has exact same chip set even for the serial to usb to serial chip is same (atmega16u2) compare to other clone brands I tried this one is better. had no issue. reason to buy this is it\’s only £8 so I use it where there is a chance of chip will fry etc

3rd one is unbranded clone

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nothing wrong with it same as above but it\’s uses a CH340G serial to usb chip which is require drivers. even on the drivers you have to allow unsigned kernel extensions for this is install this drivers.
If you have a old mac dedicated for this work then fine. if you use your own machine this is risky. windows same (I think)

this board is only £3 pounds with delivery. you can use this for through away projects

Upgrading from windows home to windows 8 Enterprise

Can’t seems upgrade from widows home to windows enterprise without re-imaging

Here is the workaround

You need upgrade the windows 10 home to windows 10 pro using this specific key.VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T this will upgrade the home to pro but the key will not activate as it\’s a default key. This will take a while.

this is the link showing how to change key

Go through the same change key method but now use your legitimate volume licence windows 10 pro key to activate windows this will activate in mins

After this Go through the same change key method but now use your enterprise key (this is pretty fast as well)