With more and more electronic gadgets such as air sterilizer, dashcam, GPS, etc. in the car, couple with the occasional need to recharge my phone and/or tablet while driving, the available charging sockets in my car is not sufficient to provide power to so much devices at the same time.
My solution is to have the Remax CR-3XP Alien series 1-to-5 smart car charger that can extend one car charging socket into 2 charging sockets with independent switch and 3 USB charging ports with combined power output of up to 3.4A.
This Remax CR-3XP smart car charger is designed to sit nicely in the car cup holder. It has 2 colour options: black+gold and white. The black+gold one looks nicer and is pretty hot selling, easily got sold out in the online shops.
This Remax CR-3XP smart car charger has an LED display, which will show the car battery voltage when its 3 USB charging ports are not in used. When either one or more of its USB ports is charging some gadget, the LED display will show the charging amperage.
The photo below shows my Remax CR-3XP smart car charger in action, sitting nicely in one of the car cup holders, with one of its charging sockets connected to my MedKlinn Autoplus air sterilizer.
You can notice that there are 2 buttons beside the LED display, one on its right and another on its left, which can be used to switch on/off the power supply to its 2 charging sockets respectively.
The Honda 39102-T9A-T8XX-M1 display audio is the stock head unit of Honda City 2017 Facelift 1.5L E/V variants.
It is able to play 4 types of multimedia files in a USB thumb drive: MP3 music, WMA music, JPEG photo, and MP4 video.
When the car parking handbrake is engaged, the video will display on the screen, otherwise, the video will become a blue screen while the music in the MP4 continue playing. This is a safety feature so that the driver will focus on driving instead of watching video on the screen. If you want to bypass this safety feature, you can search for a compatible "bypass cable" for this head unit and install it.
In order for any video to be playable in this Honda 39102-T9A-T8XX-M1 head unit, you need to convert it into MP4 format with the following custom settings:
Although the car audio manual claimed that it is able to play video in H.264
Base Line Profile format, I have not succeed to make it work with any H.264 video.
The car audio manual also claimed that it is able to support video frame rate up to 30 fps, but if you set the fps higher than 15, the video might not be playing smoothly on the screen.
As the car audio manual has stated that it supports VGA size video only, the frame size is best to be 640x480. If you set it higher than that, the video will be totally unplayable with the "not supported resolution type" error.
Luckily, this head unit is capable to play MP3 in pretty high sample rate and bitrate. Its music playing capability is quite OK, particularly with the 8 speakers in the V variant, despite its video playing capability is really primitive.
The REMAX RC-FC2 Letto car holder is apparently an upgraded version of the RC-FC1 holder.
It is improved to support 360 degree rotation for easy adjustment of the device's viewing angle. Its nickel metal plate can also lean forward and backward with 90 degree adjustment. It now comes with a 3-in-1 cable connector consisting lightning port, micro-USB port and USB Type-C port.
A sticky PU cushion is placed in front of its metal plate holder to hold the device placed on it at firm place to prevent dropping during situation such as emergency braking or sharp turning at high speed. Its round shape base is made of same material. This is how it looks like after assemble:
You can put it on your car dash, mainly for navigation purpose. You can also put it on your table top and act like a charging station.
It is strong enough to hold a 10" tablet firmly without much problem.
When you use navigation app that makes use on GPS function and will keep the screen always on, such as Waze or Google Maps navigation, your phone/tablet battery will drain out pretty fast.
The magnetic charging cable of the REMAX RC-FC2 is able to help you maintain the battery level or even to charge it to higher level. When charging, its LED light at the receptacle will turn red. When the device is fully charged, or the RC-FC2 is not performing charging action, the LED light at the receptacle is blue in colour.
Sony XAV-W650BT is a decent double DIN (Duetch Industri Normen) car head unit with DVD player. It has all the functions you need: radio, USB, AUX, Bluetooth, NFC, DVD/VCD player, steering control support, reverse camera support, etc.
It is able to play 3 types of multimedia files in a USB thumb drive: MP3 music, JPEG photo, and XVID/MP4 video.
Playing MP3 music and viewing JPEG photo is pretty straightforward, but playing video file might need some conversion work done to its compatible format, as it will face difficulty playing video that exceeds its maximum supported video resolution of 720x576. It also requires the video to have compatible codec and frame rate.
You need to convert the video file into MP4 format, with the following custom settings:
Frame size: 720x576
Adjustment: Auto
Video codec: MPEG4
Frame rate: 30 fps
Audio codec: AAC
Bitrate: maximum 4096 kbps
Even if your source file is already in MP4 format, it might not work well with the head unit if the setting is different from the above. Therefore, conversion is still required to ensure it will work well.
Now, you can run your conversion and put your favourite music videos, movies (MV), recorded TV programmes, etc. into a USB thumb drive that can be played in your Sony XAV-W650BT or similar head unit in your car.
I have just purchased this REMAX RC-FC1 car dash or table top mount stand for handphone, GPS, tablet or other similar gadgets. Beside being a mount stand for the mobile device, it also comes with a magnetic charging mechanism to keep the battery of the mobile device charged.
I found this REMAX RC-FC1 to be very innovative and useful. Its non-slip silicone base can stay firm even on curved surface.
It is very flexible and fit for most mobile devices up to 10" size and not too thick after wearing their case. If the mobile device is too thick, then it might not be able to slot into the 2 holders, which consist of 4 legs each to be attached into the holes of the base.
The base consist of multiple holes to make it very flexible to configure the holder position for different size of mobile device, which you can make them closer for smaller device or for upright screen display, and to make them further apart to support for larger device in landscape display mode.
The magnetic charging cable consists of 2 charging connectors: micro-USB for most Android devices, and Lightning connector for iPhones. Therefore, this car holder is suitable for all mobile devices that use either one of these 2 charging connectors.
The cable is 24cm long, which might be too short to reach the USB port of large tablet in portrait position. It is designed to be magnetically attached to the charging base, so that you can lift your phone or device from the holder without worrying of dragging the whole thing, as the cable will be easily detached from the base if you pull it too far away from the base, to reach your ear, for example. This will ensure the base is still staying firmly on its place, and nothing will be dropped or harmed due to the pulling.
The charging mechanism is essential for your phone or other mobile device to keep its screen on (in "car mode", if possible) and not worrying about its battery being drained out.
Although its main use is for putting your mobile device on car dash, you can also use it to place your phone or tablet on your table top at home or office. In this way, you can make your phone or tablet to be your digital clock / calendar / photo frame, or any other creative display gadget.
You might be interested to watch the video below to know more about this product and its usage.
I planned to replace my 8 years old Garmin Nuvi 255W (which is still working fine, but just old and a bit slow compared with the new models nowadays) with the new Garmin DriveAssist 50LM which is a 2-in-1 device combining GPS navigator with driving cam recorder.
However, the Garmin DriveAssist 50LM cannot be easily found in local market yet, and I'm unable to get its price detail. I ended up purchased the Garmin DriveSmart 50LM, which is similar to the DriveAssist but without the driving cam recorder function. The price for this AECO set is slightly below RM950 with some free gifts (screen protector, carry case and home USB charger).
This Garmin DriveSmart 50LM GPS navigator contains most of the functions in my Garmin Nuvi 2565LM, and with quite a number of functions not found in the Nuvi 2565LM.
The main improvement found is its ability to integrate and work with smartphones (Android and iPhone) via Bluetooth connection. Apart from the normal Bluetooth hands-free calling and address book function which is already available in Nuvi 2565LM, after installing the 2 apps: Foursquare and Garmin Smartphone Link in the smartphone, you will gain these functions in the DriveSmart 50LM:
Getting notification from smartphone and popup on the GPS screen, including new SMS, Whatsapp, calendar alert, etc. There is also an option for the GPS to read out the notification message for you.
Searching of POIs to encompass the numerous up-to-date Foursquare POIs.
Viewing Foursquare location information including user ratings, restaurant pricing information, operation hours, etc.
Sync of favourites and travel history with the phone.
Display of weather information and temperature provided by the phone.
There are also some small functions not found in the Nuvi 2565LM available, including the fatique warning which will remind you to take a rest after 2-3 hours of continuous driving.
The search function has also been improved and easier to use.
This DriveSmart 50LM comes with 4GB internal storage, which is large enough to accomodate many maps, JCVs and other data. There is no need to put in micro-SD card for additional storage, although the micro-SD slot is still there.
This AECO set comes with lifetime free MalFreeMaps and City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia NT map, updatable from Garmin's website.
Similar with the Nuvi 2565LM, software update of this DriveSmart 50LM can be done using Garmin Express installed in the computer.
After connecting the Garmin GPS to the computer with USB cable, the Garmin Express can be used to:
Register the product for warranty.
Perform software update.
Install additional language files.
Backup favourites to PC.
Transfer favourites among different Garmin navigators own by you.
However, there are still things I don't like about this DriveSmart 50LM, including:
It is using mini-USB cable (same as the one used by 255W) and not micro-USB cable (the one used by 2565LM). As most of the smartphones and tablets nowadays are using micro-USB (and the latest such as HTC 10 is already using the new USB type-C), this means mini-USB cable is rarely used. This means the GPS cannot share the same USB cable with your smartphone as the connector is different.
When connected with smartphone using Smartphone Link, it is able to display new Whatsapp notification, but not until the Whatsapp message detail. When tap to read, it will just read out the sender's detail, but not the message content.
I've just changed my car battery today with the service from The Battery Shop.
My old battery was still able to crank up the car engine, after serving for about 2 years. I decided to make an appointment with The Battery Shop for a free onsite checking, after experienced 2 times of car clock reset itself to 12:00 and 1 time of all the radio station preset memory gone. Yesterday, the VST-706 voltmeter in my car has shown unstable voltage that kept on changing within the range of 13.0V to 14.8V when the car is running.
2 young men arrived at my home right on time of the appointment. They called me about 40 minutes earlier to conform the appointment before they came.
They checked my car electrical system and informed me the car alternator is working fine. They found greenish residue developed at the anode terminal of the old battery. Decision was then made to replace the old battery with a new Korean brand Atlas BX 75D23L sealed maintenance free (SMF) battery.
They kept my car engine running during the changing of battery. The whole process was less than 5 minutes. All the settings and memory of the car's clock and radio system are still remained after the battery swap.
Here is my car's new battery, up and running at its place. The voltage supplied is now stable at around 14.2V when engine is running with this new battery.
The Battery Shop's onsite service (delivery, inspection and installation) at Klang Valley area is free of charge. The 2 young technicians I met were polite and the job was professionally done. I was given a RM20 discount, and the new battery cost me RM310. This price is quite reasonable, as 75D23L battery is of higher spec than 55D23L and therefore carries a higher price tag.
The new battery comes with 12 months warranty with warranty card and a car sticker. The technicians informed me that if they see this sticker on my car's windscreen during their next service, they will provide RM20 discount for the next battery change.
I am aware that The Battery Shop is in direct competition with BateriKu. The brands that they carry are different, and the team is also different. If you prefer Atlas BX or GP, you can contact The Battery Shop; if you prefer Century, Yuasa or Astra, you can contact BateriKu.
I have just bought this VST-706 car gadget which plugs into the car cigarette lighter socket and function as 3-in-1:
Battery voltmeter
Digital thermometer
USB 2.0 charger
This little car gadget cost less than RM30 and works with car using 12V battery or 24V battery.
The interpretation of its voltmeter reading is as follow:
Its thermometer measuring range is -9 ~ 80 degree Celsius.
The maximum output current of its USB charging port is 2.1A.
With it, you can always monitor the voltage of your car battery and be alerted of its faulty and timing for its end-of-life, before it went flat. The thermometer and USB charger are extra features that good to have too.
I have just changed my car tyres to Hankook Ventus V2 concept2 (H457) all-season with the following ratings:
Speed rating: H
Tread wear: 500
Traction: AA
Temperature resistance: A
Out of curiosity, I have done a search in the Internet to find out the meaning of these ratings, and below is what I've learnt.
The tread wear, traction and temperature resistance ratings are measured following the standard as defined in the Uniform Tyre Quality Grading (UTQG) system.
Speed Rating
The speed rating is the maximum speed capability of a new tyre, denoted by an alphabet as below:
L = 120km/h
M = 130 km/h
N = 140 km/h
P = 150 km/h
Q = 160 km/h
R = 170 km/h
S = 180 km/h
T = 190 km/h
U = 200 km/h
H = 210 km/h
V = 240 km/h
W = 270 km/h
Y = 300 km/h
Tread Wear
The tread wear grade is a comparative rating based on the wear rate of the tyre when tested under controlled conditions on a specified test track.
Tyres with lower tread wear grade are generally softer, run quieter, but wear off faster, whereas tyres with higher tread wear grade are generally harder, run noisier especially on concrete road surface, and wear off slower (generally more durable).
Most tyres nowadays have tread wear grade between 300-500, therefore tread wear grade of 500 is comparatively harder and wear off slower.
Traction
The traction grade represents the tyre's ability to stop when braked on wet pavement as measured under controlled conditions on specified test surfaces of asphalt and concrete.
There are altogether 4 traction grades for tyres approved to be used on the road:
AA - the best rating
A
B
C
Most tyres nowadays have traction grade A, so AA is considered as an above average grade.
Temperature Resistance
The temperature grade represents the tyre's resistance to the generation of heat when running. It is tested under controlled conditions on a specified indoor laboratory test wheel.
Note that sustained high temperature can cause the materials of the tyre to degenerate and thus reduce its life, and excessive temperature can lead to tyre failure.
There are altogether 3 temperature resistance grades for tyres approved to be used on the road:
A - the best rating
B
C
Most tyres nowadays have temperature resistance grade B, so A is considered as an above average grade.
I applied a new HSBC Amanah Credit Card in March 2015 and was promised with a Sharp in car air purifier (worth about RM350) as signing free gift by meeting the required terms and conditions.
After waited for about half a year, I finally received this free gift from HSBC.
As a car ionizer, this Sharp IG-DC2E-B functions in my car to:
Purify air by settling airborne particles and dust
Disinfect viruses
Deodorize bad smell
Remove adhered mold and suspend further mold
Remove allergens from dead dust mites and dust mite faeces
The unit is cylindrical in shape, looks like a typical water container, and fit in the cup holder in the car.
Installation is pretty easy, just need to remove its back cover to plug in the power connection cable, route the power cord to come out from either one of its two outlets (one near its middle, and another near its bottom) , then cover back the back cover. Plug the other end of the power connection cable to the car's lighter socket, and it is ready to operate.
There are 3 available operation modes:
Low: ion density of 7,000 ions per cubic centimetre, quiet, consume less power (1.1 watt).
High: ion density of 25,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisier, consume more power (1.8 watt).
Turbo: ion density of 50,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisiest, consume most power (2.7 watt).
The IZ-C75CE Plasmacluster ion generating unit can be seen after removing the back cover of the IG-DC2E-B. It has a lifespan of approximately 19,000 hours (more than 6 years) and need replacement upon end of life.
Now my car has 2 ionizers, the existing Medklinn mobile ionizer (I've already made an upgraded to Medklinn Asens Auto from the one shown in the linked article) and this new Sharp Plasmacluster ion generator. The Medklinn claims to be able to produce much more ions (2 millions per cubic centimetre) than the Sharp.
I have been thinking of getting a car video recorder for quite some times, but I just can't convince myself to get a simple camera for a few hundred ringgit just to record down what is in front of my car, until I found this Transcend DrivePro 220 (model no. TS16GDP220M).
I bought it from Rakuten online store at the promotional price of slightly less than RM400, after credit card special day discount, and conversion of some points to additional discount.
It comes with a 16GB microSDHC class 10 MLC memory card that can store up to 120 minutes of Full HD videos.
First of all, being a car video recorder, this Transcend DrivePro 220 has a 3 mega-pixel camera with low-light sensitivity CMOS sensor. The video quality is pretty good in all weather conditions including rainy day. Its night vision is good too.
The recorded video file is in MP4 format. There is option to choose to record in full HD format (1920x1080 30FPS) or HD format (1280x720 30FPS). It will be saved as new file every 3 minutes or longer. When the memory card is full, the oldest file will be replaced in FIFO queue manner. If we want to keep a file and protect it from deletion, it allows up to 15 files to be protected.
It has a 3-axis G-sensor which can detect unusual shaking especially during collision, and will automatically protect the recorded video file from being deleted by recording rotational replacement.
You can also take a snapshot JPG photo by pressing its right most button while it is in recording mode.
The Transcend DrivePro 220 has an internal Li-Po 470mAh battery, which keeps track of its date and time, as well as provide emergency power for emergency recording of up to 30 minutes.
If you enable Parking Mode which will start recording when its sensor detects a movement in front of the camera while it is sleeping, the battery provides the power to run this Parking Mode operation.
What made me finally decided to buy it is its additional functions which make it more than a normal car video recorder:
Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyze the current camera recording and detect the lane line. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start LDWS and your car about to gone off the lane, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound. This is useful when you are driving long distance on highway, and you gone off the lane due to sleepy condition.
Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyse the current camera recording and detect any car in front of you which it found is too near to you. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start FCWS, and it detects a car in front of you which is too near, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound different from the one of LDWS. However, I found that it is not so accurate in estimating the distance, sometimes the car in front is quite far away, but it will still warn out.
Speed Limit Alert - the DrivePro 220 can detect your moving speed with its built-in GPS. You can set a speed limit so that it will warn you when you are over speed.
You can set to let its 2.4" screen automatically turn off after some times, so that you can concentrate on your driving and not distracted by its screen display. However, when the unit is functioning with screen off, the LDWS, FCWS and Speed Limit Alert will only beep to warn you, but won't show on the screen what's the trigger. You need to manually press the left most button to turn the screen on to see what happen.
The Transcend DrivePro 220 also has built-in WiFi, but not function to connect to the Internet. With WiFi on, it forms an AP with internal network for smartphone to connect to it with the Transcend DrivePro app to access to its videos, and also gain remote control to change its settings.
You can view the video below to have better understanding of what the Transcend DrivePro 220 can do.
If your car CD player is capable of replaying MP3 music, you'll need to burn the MP3 files into a finalized CDR disc, which has a capacity of up to 680MB only.
If your car audio system has a USB port to play MP3 music, you'll need to copy the MP3 files to a USB thumb drive and plug it into the USB port of the car audio system.
What if your car audio system doesn't support the above 2 ways of playing MP3 music?
Well, you can convert and burn your MP3 files into an audio CD, which can store about 10 songs, and play it with your car CD player.
There also exist a kind of FM Transmitter that plug into your car's cigarette lighter socket, which you need to copy your MP3 files to an SD card and slot it into the FM Transmitter. Then, you can tune your car radio to the same frequency with the FM Transmitter in order to listen to the music.
But I have a better choice. I use the kind of FM Transmitter as shown below which can turn your handphone, MP3 player, or any kind of gadgets that support audio output to a universal 3.5mm headphone jack.
This FM Transmitter turns your gadget into a mini radio station with broadcast range of about 15 meters only. It supports devices with the 3.5mm headphone jack including handphone, MP3 player, voice recorder, tablet, laptop, etc.
The audio transmitted out can then be received and played by any radio device within the range. This could be your car radio, a normal radio, a Hi-Fi, a handphone with FM radio function, etc.
This FM Transmitter is able to transmit high-fidelity stereo sound with the digital PLL (phase locked loop) technology. It supports full range of FM transmitting frequency (87.5MHz-108.0MHz). It has stereo isolation of >= 38dB.
You can use it to output any kind of audio from the connected device, with audio frequency range of 100Hz-15,000Hz.
It has its own built-in 120mAh Li-ion battery, which can be recharged with its micro-USB port.
Its usage is similar to the cigarette lighter FM Transmitter. Just tune your car radio to the same frequency with this FM Transmitter in order to listen to the music.
Nowadays most of us make use of our car's cigarette lighter socket as a kind of in-car power source for our gadgets rather than its original purpose (to heat up and light a cigarette).
When we carry more and more gadgets, we might find that one power source is not enough, and we find ways to extend it.
I make use of HSC (英才星) YC-401 Car 1-to-3 Cigarette Lighter Sockets with 2 USB ports to obtain up to 5 power sources in my car.
With this gadget, now I get:
3x 12V/24V 5A DC cigarette lighter sockets (which can plug in car chargers of gadgets)
1x 5V/1A USB charging port (suitable for most handphones or GPS)
1x 5V/2.1A USB charging port (suitable for most tablets)
This HSC YC-401 cost me RM3x. It has some prominent claims on quality, including:
Dual power control IC (instead of one)
Output power of 120W supporting all kinds of gadgets including car vacuum cleaner
Stainless steel metal contacts that won't rust
10A/250V fuse (the package comes with 2 fuses, one for use and one for spare)
My Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator which I bought in 2009 is still working fine, but for some reason my family needs a 2nd GPS navigator, so I have purchased a new Garmin Nuvi 2565LM.
It is a genuine AECO unit that comes with 2 years warranty and with AECO and MCMC stickers, sold at RM650 with some free gifts (screen protector, carry case, home charger, etc.). This price is even cheaper than the price I bought my Garmin Nuvi 255W about 4 years ago!
Some of the differences/enhancements of Garmin Nuvi 2565LM from Nuvi 255W includes:
A larger 5" screen (255W has a 4.3" screen)
Supports microSD card (255W supports normal size SD card for additional storage)
Faster and stronger GPS satellite signal detection. It is able to get some GPS signal even indoor near the window.
Better and faster search function. It no longer need to specify the location for the search target as in 255W.
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) to issue voice command without the need to touch the GPS.
Bluetooth integration with Android smartphone, which is able to make or receive hands-free call as well as displaying the phone's address book on its screen. When getting a call, it is able to display the caller's name or phone number. If a Point of Interest (POI) contains telephone information, it is able to make call using the Android phone as well.
Customizable Main Menu. I think the default layout is pretty good, so I haven't tried this.
Remember last parking spot (when it is removed from its mount).
"Go Office" beside "Go Home".
MyTrends predictive routing.
Route preview among faster time, shorter distance and cost saving.
Custom avoidances by area or by road.
Trip Planner.
ecoRoute, which I haven't tried yet.
Built in compass.
Calculator.
Unit converter.
User definable display on bottom left-hand-side of the map. Can display either one of travel direction, elevation, time of day, vehicle speed, time to arrival, distance to arrival, etc.
Integrated driving recorder, which I haven't tried this. It needs an additional GDR camera to function.
Rear camera video support.
Preloaded with 3 maps - City Navigator, MalFreeMaps NT and MalSingMaps NT. Also preloaded with Custom POIs including AES spots.
One thing I dislike about this Garmin Nuvi 2565LM is that, its speaker volume is softer and screen display is dimmer when using battery compared to when it is plugged to the car charger. This could be a "feature" to save the battery juice, but the variance should not be too big. I find it to be either too soft when using battery at 70% volume, or too loud when using charger at 90% volume.
It seems that the website has been around for a few months. It hosts a web commercial short movie of the 9th generation of Honda Civic launched in year 2012.
What caught my attention is that, before the movie is played, the website asked for a photo (either taken from webcam directly, or from file upload) and some basic personal info (name, age, gender, location, etc.).
It actually casts the photo and personal info into the commercial movie played thereafter. You can see your photo appeared in several scenes throughout the movie.
This is truly an innovative way of using mediated reality.
Contributors in MalFreeMaps (MFM) forum have just released MFM-CPOI 20121023 (WAV format only) Point-Of-Interest (POI) files for Garmin GPS navigators.
These custom POI will enable your Garmin GPS to alert you on the following points when you approaching them:
MFM-Accident Area v2.6
MFM-AES Cameras v2.1
MFM-AES Mobile Camera v1.8
MFM-AES Traffic Light v2.0
MFM-Checkpoints v3.0
MFM-Expressway R&R Stop areas v5.0
MFM-Latar_Toll v1.0
MFM-Ngvstations
MFM-Night Market POIs v2.22
MFM-NKVE_Cameras v1.0
MFM-Pasar Tani v2.3
MFM-Power Grids
v2.0
MFM-Railway Crossing V2.5
MFM-Redlight Cameras v1.9
MFM-Road Junctions
MFM-School Zone v2.0
MFM-SGRC_B_W_091206
MFM-SGRC_S_W_091206
MFM-Sharp Bend v3.6
MFM-Speed Traps & Camera v5.3
MFM-State Border V1.0
MFM-Toll Plazas v2.1
MFM-Tunnel v1.3
MFM-Touch n Go Hubs v1.0
You can install the full list, or just some of them, by copying the respective GPI files into the Garmin\POI folder (create one if it doesn't exist) of your Garmin GPS.
This compilation contains POI alert for the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) installed by JPJ recently.
If you have a Garmin GPS navigator, you are most likely mount it with its suction cup onto your car windscreen in order to use it.
The suction cup rubber tend to age and lost its suction power by time, and can cause your GPS navigator to fall off from windscreen while you are driving. 2 years ago, I've posted a solution to prolong the time of possible fall off by reactivate the suction cup power with hot water. Another common method is to make the suction cup wet by putting some water (or saliva!?) onto its base before putting it onto the windscreen.
Now, I found an alternative solution, which is to use Garmin portable friction mount to place the GPS navigator on top of the car dashboard.
This friction mount holds the Garmin GPS on top of the dashboard with strong grip and unlikely to be affected even when sharp cornering or emergency breaking. It has a sticky pliable base which can bend according to the dashboard shape.
After using, you can easily take it off from your dashboard. Although there is sticky material at its bottom, it won't leave any residue on the dashboard.
It's holding arm is foldable to adjust the position of the GPS when use. You can totally fold it down when not in use.
I bought it online at the cost of RM88 including shipping.
The RON 97 petrol price has silently risen to a historical high of RM3.00 per litre since Thursday 6 September 2012, a whopping 30 sen increase from its previous price of RM2.70.
In July, it was reported that the price of RON 97 was slashed by 20 sen from RM2.80 to RM2.60 per litre.
Then, the price silently increased by 10 sen in August to RM2.70 per litre without announcement.
Now, it increased again to historical high, without announcement too!
In one sunny day, I discovered a long crack (slightly more than 1 feet) on the left hand side of my car's windscreen. To replace a new windscreen would probably cost above RM800, and after the replacement, I would need to reapply V-Kool which will probably cost another few hundreds. After some thought, I decided to get the windscreen repaired rather than replaced.
I called up a windscreen specialist called Mr. Raymond Fong, and he turned up at my home within 3 hours on the same day.
He covered the part to be repaired from direct sunlight with an umbrella, then carefully applied some sort of glass compound into the crack with his tools. After that, he removed the umbrella and make use of the ultraviolet light from the sun to dry out and harden the compound. The whole process took less than 1 hour, and the crack become a slight scar which is not easily seen. This repair also prevents the crack from widening further.
I was charged RM150 for the job, with official receipt and warranty. If you are also looking for car windscreen repair service, I recommend Raymond to you for his professional and quality service.
After some years of operation, the stock head unit of my Toyota Avanza is having problem pulling in the CD, and I planned to replace it since several months ago.
I don't have high demand in car audio, and don't want to spend too much on it. However, I do have basic demand, which the quality of most of the China made brands not meeting my expectation. Therefore, I go for mid-range, and finally installed Kenwood KDC-U353R in my car.
This seems to be a new 2012 model, and cost me RM250.
Function wise, it meets my requirement to listen to radio and to play CD audio / MP3 / WMA with CD / CDR / CDRW or USB drive. In fact, this unit comes with a free 4GB USB Pendrive which can store several hundred MP3 files. I think this unit is unable to play AAC M4A file, which is something nice to have, but not a big deal if it doesn't have.
It also comes with a small remote control, a nice gadget for passengers in 2nd or 3rd row seat to take control of it.
Like most of Kenwood head unit, its faceplate is removable (so called Theft Deterrent Faceplate - TDF) and there is a special casing to keep the removed faceplate. Taking out and putting on the faceplate is pretty easy. However, there will be occasion to accidentally pressed the Eject button and cause the faceplate to come out from the panel, even if we don't mean so.
The Kenwood KDC-U353R head unit looks elegant at night, with red backlight and blue LED display. The brightness of the blue LED display can be adjusted in its function setting.
Radio reception is very good, better than the stock HU of Toyota Avanza 1.5G. The radio is still clear in some rural area where previously the stock unit will produce a lot of hissing sound.
Its sound quality is better than the stock HU too (this is as expected from Kenwood product). It works well with the stock speakers in Toyota Avanza, and I have added 2 tweeters in front to get more treble, especially when listening to radio.
