Category Archives: equipment

The Birds are Returning

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Spring Welcomes our Feathered Friends

Here in western Michigan, the sun is finally making an appearance and the winter’s cold is fading. That signals the time for the migrating birds to make their way back to our northern location.

Reaching back to Christmas, my wife received a gift that is perfect for this warming weather.

It’s called BirdBuddy.

This is a bird feeder with addition of a built-in camera.

She was anxious to see how it works but we thought it best to wait until the weather was more hospitable to the both the birds and to me (I’d have to get it working in the cold).

The BirdBuddy has a solar panel roof to power the camera. While we’ve used it only a few days, we’re not sure if the panel will charge the unit without having to use conventional USB charging.

The camera has a motion sensor to start recording when a bird (or other animal) approaches the unit.

Assembly is simple – snap the front and rear feed walls to the blue platform, attach the roof, insert the camera unit front facing into its slot and add some bird feed.

After downloading the BirdBuddy app from the internet you set up an account with your email address and finally connect the unit to your wi-fi network.

When we had it assembled and were ready to go, we hung the unit in the backyard.

Sure enough an hour later we had a feathered visitor.

The BirdBuddy app notified us and sent this message with a picture of the unidentifed bird.

When we clicked Identify this visitor we were told that the bird is a House Finch.

We were both surprised that BirdBuddy actually records a video when the motion detector kicks in.

Here’s a short clip of the House Finch munching on some seeds.

We’re happy that this BirdBuddy is now ready to serve up more sightings as Spring continues to bring more visitors back to Michigan.

If you’re interested find more information about BirdBuddy here.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

Drone Time

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Talking to Potensic Corp

Walking through the endless aisles at this past January’s Consumer Electronics Show I came upon a familiar name Potensic.

Since I have one of their Atom 2 compact drones, I stopped to talk to Dean one of their representatives. I wanted to find out if they had any other accessories that I might use with my device.

The first thing he pointed out were the grey propeller guards.

I asked Dean about these and he said they were for users who fly their drones indoors and protect both the drone and any users from the rotating propellers. They are also useful for added safety when flying near trees or buildings.

While the guards add a few ounces of weight to the drone and require slightly more battery power when taking off and flying they help stabilize flight in windy conditions. Targeted at the beginner drone pilot, the are not required but are helpful when learning to fly the device.

Clip showing the Atom 2 with propeller guards

The second thing he pointed out is their new PTD-1 controller. It has a built-in screen, internal memory for video recording and slot for mini-SD card for expanded storage for movies and photos.

It eliminates the need to use a mobile phone (either iPhone or Android) with their standard controller.

For those interested the propeller guards costs about $30 per set .

The new PTD-1 controller costs about $280.

Not long after I returned home from CES I ended up ordering a set of propeller guards for my Atom 2.

Since I’m closer to a beginner than an advanced pilot I feel more comfortable using the guards.

This afternoon I fired up the drone with the propeller guards to video the roof overhang on our porch. I wanted to see if there was snow up there (it’s still cold here in Michigan). There were a few small spots of snow and you can clearly see the snow on the grass below.

Although the Consumer Electronics Show has been over for two months now, I keep looking back to some of my encounters there with so many interesting electronic devices.

I’m looking forward to CES 2027.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

Better Videos

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with your mobile phone

I enjoy attending the Consumer Electronics Show to see the plethora of different devices that are available to a gadget junkie such as myself. This past January I again walked through the miles of the Las Vegas Convention Center to see what might attract my attention. One of the booths was Hohen.

Hohen makes a series of handheld gimbal equipped devices.

These devices are for enthusiasts and professionals who want to shoot better quality movies by stabilizing their videos. They also have other features such as remote control, built-in lighting, subject tracking and more.

Their representative demonstrated a few of the features for me and I was impressed.

When I returned home, I ended up purchasing the V3 model
It has a builtin tripod, telescoping extension and auxiliary fill light.
This closeup shows the controller which is removable for remote use.
Here my mobile phone is mounted on the gimbal. On the left is a small fill light and the tracking sensor.
This short video demonstrates the tracking capability of the gimbal. The representative has ordered the gimbal to follow the movement of the yellow ball. You can see the camera moving on the gimbal as the yellow ball progresses on the track.

The unit communicates with your mobile phone with bluetooth. The mobile app has multiple templates to make it easy to produce fun and exciting movies. You can add various filters and create slow-motion and timelapse content.

Hohem’s V3 model sells for about $125 and has so far proven to be a good investment. I’ve happily added this gimbal to my photography accessory bag and am hoping that the quality of my movies improves.

The Hohem X3 model lacks the telescoping extension and the builtin fill light but sells for about $65.

Written by:

Arnie Lee