We have a FoodSaver vacuum sealer that we only use for the accessory port with the mason / canning jar lid sealer accessories. [These allow you to vacuum seal items inside a canning jar.]

I purchased an Anova handheld vacuum sealer (that is made to work with re-usable ziplock style vacuum bags) and verified that it fits well enough onto the top of the FoodSaver jar sealer accessories to vacuum seal jars without the use of the (rather large FoodSaver).  This will allow me to get rid of the foodsaver, and only store the mason jar lid accessories with the Anova handheld vacuum pump.

I confirmed that the Anova unit could pull 14 inHg on the initial vacuum, and if you pushed the button a second time, it would get the vacuum down to 15 inHg. [The plug-in full sized FoodSaver unit drew down to 16 inHg, so slightly more vacuum, but not enough more to justify the space it takes up.]

Amazon affiliate links:

• Anova Precision handheld (USB-C rechargeable) vacuum sealer
• FoodSaver regular mouth jar sealer accessory
• FoodSaver wide mouth jar sealer accessory
• The hand vacuum pump I used to test the amount of vacuum (but could also be used to hand vacuum seal jars without power…)

A while back I purchased a generic Wifi Micro-SD card adapter that didn’t work with my Linux computer due to the proprietary protocol it used.  This ez Sh@are 32GB SDHC +Wi-Fi card is what I should have purchased in the first place.

When powered in the camera, it acts as an AP and broadcasts a Wi-Fi network (default SDID: ez Share, default PW: 88888888  – eight eights) that you can connect to with any laptop or phone. It captures your browser and directs it to a “ezshare.card” web-server that displays the photos on your SD card. (If that doesn’t work, you can direct your browser directly to 192.168.4.1).

You can view thumbnail previews of the images, and download a single image, or a selection of images (as a tar file) or all images in the folder (again, as a tar file).

If you want to see or download videos on the card, you need to select the “Video Gallary” link (it doesn’t show previews of the videos).

The only configuration options are to change the SSID of the network, the WiFi network password, and the administrative password (the default admin password is “admin”).  You should change the wifi password and the admin password if you don’t want random people downloading the photos from your SD card anytime your camera is on.

If you mess up the configuration, or find a ezShare WiFi card that you can’t access, the configuration is stored in a file on the card, so if you format the card it will overwrite the configuration and go back to the defaults.

I bought the 32GB card that includes a “share” (or not) switch on the bottom that gives you the option to turn off the WiFi AP when you don’t want to export one (Airplane mode, or to save power).  You can also purchase a TF/MicroSD card “adapter” version, that includes the WiFi server, but does NOT include any memory, allowing you to insert a larger sized MicroSD card if you need more than 32 GB of storage.

I tested the VECYS IC1209 countertop ice maker.

It takes 1h 20min to make a pound of ice, and draws 100 watts per hour average (max draw is close to 250 watts when heating the evaporators to drop the ice, and may surge to 350-800 watts for a second when the compressor kicks on).

I was surprised to find that my fridge/freezer door mounted ice maker only made 0.19 pounds of ice in the same time, justifying having a separate appliance if you need to make a lot of ice in a quick amount of time. [You will have to add more water and remove the ice every 1-2 hours, so it’s not for completely unattended operation…]

Amazon Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3FtQIVO

Maker Faire Orlando (2021) had a lot of interesting exhibits.

Here are a few that drew my attention:

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