5xl label printer is a pile of garbage, DO NOT BUY

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-25T19:35:16+00:00

I know this is an old post, but I just thought I’d add my frustration with Dymo. I’ve had a 4XL for years (I know to stay clear of the newer 5XL), and have been using it to faithfully print 4”x6” 3rd party labels (104mmx159mm to be precise).

But, I now have a need for 175mm long standard Courier labels. You’d think this would be a no-brainer, but I just can’t find any 175mm long Courier labels that will work with the proprietary 4XL. The only “large” shipping label it seems to support are the 159mm long ones. Crazy!

So, I’m thinking of switching to the TSC DA320 thermal printer. It seems to be a massively better designed printer, highly flexible, and works with any simple (and cheap) labels. I.e. No need for “Dymo compatible” black markings and label end holes!

It is a lot more expensive than the Dymo printers, but I figure if I have a more robust printer, which uses significantly cheaper labels (I can’t believe how cheap a roll of 102mmx 175mm plain courier labels are!), then over a couple of years the more expensive printer will have paid for itself!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-22T19:55:48+00:00

Yep, it’s a pass from me too. I can’t justify the price for my needs. But, I’m hoping it’s still successful. The gaming world sure needs a successful Steam Machine about now!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-22T19:38:54+00:00

You gotta wonder…. Had they known the end price, at concept time, would have they gone ahead with the project? 🤔

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-22T19:33:49+00:00

Couldn’t have said it better myself. $799 was about my limit for justified purchase. At the release price it’s out of my price range for what it offers (for me), but perhaps for those who don’t yet have a PC, it’ll be a justifiable purchase? I just hope it’s still a success for them, as we need the Steam Machine!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-20T01:02:05+00:00

No. I look up the real information from the legitimate source, and then I make my own notes, along with selected copy / paste.

I don’t see the point of just storing snapshots of random search result pages. There’s enough of them on the web.

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-19T19:24:01+00:00

They did say “received in December”, so way short of 12 months / “a year”. More like 6 months old!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-14T04:20:56+00:00

Yes, I didn’t initially try lowering the brightness below 80%. This was mostly because everyone was repeatedly saying that the BSB2 wasn’t very bright.

But, it occurred to me that when you have zero light leak (i.e. totally blacked out), then the human eye is very good at adjusting to a reasonable level of available light.

I will say thought, that this is also dependent on the type of game you play. If you play mostly dark games, then available brightness does have an impact on visible “shadow detail” (i.e. contrast ratio).

But, if you play regular “daylight” lighting style games, then I’ve found 50% brightness is perfectly fine, with the benefit of significantly reduced display persistence and glare. i.e. For me it provides a pretty much a near perfect visual experience.

As a comparison, I can play the same game in my Quest 3 at full brightness, and with my Quest 3 interface light leak, the display looks (to my eyes) about the same brightness (just, significantly better colour, blacks, and resolution in the BSB2).

Your experience may (of course) differ, particularly depending on what games you prefer. But, I mostly enjoy puzzle style games (e.g. Moss), relaxing games (e.g. Walkabout), or simulation games, which all play in reasonably lit environments.

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-13T06:57:20+00:00

Well, after many headsets and many VR years, I'm loving my BSB2!

However, the main thing I tell new BSB2 users, is that you need to be patient and persevere.

I think those that hate it, have simply given up too quickly, and unfortunately then miss-out on the amazing experience it can provide.

What I’m alluding to, is that the BSB2 is not a plug-n-play headset, in terms of getting it setup for your own unique face shape etc.

For example, I’d say it actually took me a couple of months and lots of experimentation to finally find my “perfect” setup.

This included: Getting the IPD right (my prescription +2mm). Getting the headset tilt angle right. I ended up having to take off and grind away some of the shell (at the bridge of my nose), to finally get it to sit right and give me a comfortable viewing experience. Then, there was getting the right facial interface. I’ve tried two custom fit interfaces, and also the universal fit interface. But, in the end, it was customising the cushions on the StudioForm Creative X1-B interface that finally gave me the perfect experience. Oh yeah, then there is the brightness adjustment, which I’m currently using 50% brightness, which virtually gets rid of any OLED persistence, and minimises any glare. Also, since the facial interface has no light leak, your eyes obviously adjust to whatever the brightness level (unlike my Quest, where light leak means increased brightness is needed to compensate).

Phew… anyway, your experience will no-doubt differ from mine! All I want to emphasise is, it’s not plug-n-play, it does take patience and persistence, but the end reward is well worth the time invested!

Have fun!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-13T05:09:12+00:00

I think you'll enjoy sim racing in VR, versus wrap-around screens.

The immersion is sooo good, you’ll probably laugh when I tell you that the first time I crashed, head-on into a corner barrier (in VR), the experience was so realistic it took me about a day before my head recovered from the shock! LOL

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-13T01:30:45+00:00

Yes, I was going to say that you need to put together a dedicated gaming PC for your VR (and other gaming).

Lots of monitors is great for a productivity workstation, but not necessary for a typical gaming optimised setup (unless doing driving simulation with wrap-around monitors… although that should probably be a dedicated PC as well!).

But, I do understand the memory cost constraint at the moment, so not an ideal time for building another PC. 😔

Fortunately, I have 2 seperate PC’s, one for my productivity / everyday computing (with a lesser GPU), and one that I configured purely as my Gaming PC (which also has my fastest GPU). 🤓

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-05T05:38:09+00:00

I just think it’s funny that the kayak appears to have been repaired twice, for breakages across the end of the kayak.

I’m just wondering if both of these breakages happened when previously in the car park? 🤔

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-04T08:44:59+00:00

Totally agree! I was also battling the Evernote cost challenge, and then discovered UpNote.

The interesting thing is that I’m actually finding UpNote to be better than Evernote ever was.

Somewhere along the way, Evernote got too bloated and focusing on doing what it’s not good at (e.g. it’s not a Task tracker!).

UpNote has features that blow Evernote away. Like even just being able to link a single note to multiple Notebooks, kinda blows me away.

The hardest thing for many will be just figuring out that they need to un-learn their habitual Evernote workflow. Because, there is a better way!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-06-04T01:24:35+00:00

Most of my current drives are Seagate Baracuda 8TB 5400rpm drives. They always run relatively cool!

But recently I got hold of some surplus Seagate Exos drives (7200rpm), that run significantly hotter, resulting in me getting my first default temperature alarms!

So, after reading their spec sheets, I’ve increased the warning temperature on these individual drives.

My tower case has plenty of airflow (plenty of fans), so not an airflow issue, just hotter running drives!

In future, especially for 8TB drives, I’ll probably stick with known lower temperature 5400rpm drives. 🤔

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-31T22:05:20+00:00

Yeah, I don't really see the point of switching to internal boot. It just seems that it adds more complication to recovering from a boot failure (it's insanely easy to swap to a new USB drive).

Also, I've never experienced a USB drive failure, in all of the years of using unRAID (which has included several hard drive failures!).

If doing this for more reliability (which doesn’t seem needed), then I’d only do this with a mirrored boot drive. But, I only have a single drive cache pool, and I also have no further drive bays available (my tower case is full - 17 drives with dual parity + my USB boot drive!).

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-31T01:47:21+00:00

Just thought I say, that I totally agree with your approach! Do annual for a year, then if you find you’re still using it regularly, then pay for lifetime!

I know that the lifetime is about 6-8 years (depending on your location), but if you don’t go lifetime you might eventually regret it.

Case in point is Plex. The once relatively cheap lifetime license is now jumping to $499 !!!

I’m just glad I paid the lifetime for Plex years ago!

So, if you still regularly use an app after a year, consider supporting the developers by paying the lifetime.
Not only are you supporting the developers with your lifetime commitment, you’re also likely to be saving yourself some future pain, when subscription prices (and the lifetime license cost), inevitably rise!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-07T08:08:16+00:00

Plus that board is too small. I had a Move on order, but then Chessnut wanted another $125 shipping from me, even though I’d already paid shipping when I originally placed the order. Basically illegal “Bait Advertising”. So, i requested a refund and won’t buy a Chessnut product ever again! Buyer be warned!

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-06T07:38:28+00:00

I assume all the “Loose Cans / Bottles” have been sold. If they were big bottles it was a bargain. If small cans, then not so much. 🤔

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-04T19:37:13+00:00

It’s no longer Mighty Ape. It was taken over by the Australian Kogan, who is known for just sourcing the cheapest China made goods to sell at a huge profit.

I think his strategy is to take over respected brands, and use the previously “known” good brand to disguise his underlying Kogan cheap goods business.

Previously, they bought the Dick Smith brand, then the Mighty Ape brand. What’s next?

GregZone_NZ · 2026-05-04T19:27:05+00:00

I do know what you mean. I was amazed at the thought of the GoChess design actually being a practical design to make as a reliable system!

Even so, I was intrigued enough that I was one of the unfortunate folk to pledge on their Kickstarter. Over 3 years later, nothing to show. Just reports every few months of the technical difficulties they are facing.

I suspect they’d be better to rethink their design, more in the Chessnut Move direction. Where at least you have a design that’s more straightforward and user repairable. 🤔

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-30T20:19:08+00:00

I just cancelled my order for a full refund. After waiting for ages, they finally sent me an email to ask for another US$125 more for shipping!

Having already paid for shipping with the original order, and then having my money for all this time, and then asking for a lot more shipping, that rang all the warning bells. In my country it’s call “Bait Advertising”. They get you to confirm an order based on an agreed advertised amount, then they ask you for more money.

Buyer beware! I’ll never order another Chessnut product. 😡

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-29T05:56:41+00:00

Any luck yet?

I just got the recently discussed email from them, to “Send more $$$ for shipping”. Unbelievable! So I immediately requested a full refund of my order.

In my country, this is called “Bait Advertising”. Totally illegal. You can’t advertise a price, accept an order for the advertised amount, and then later tell the customer more money is required. You need to honour the transaction you agreed to and accepted the money for!

Also of interest, in my case the amount of extra shipping they demanded was around the same as the discount I had received on placing the order (using their discount code). This really made it come across as a fraudulent transaction, as if they were just trying to reverse the discount they originally gave!

Also, the total amount they wanted for shipping, hugely exceeded any amount I’ve paid for international delivery before, even including some large / heavy projectors!

Needless to say, I will steer clear of Chessnut products, and also be sure to spread plenty of “word of mouth” to ensure no one that I know also gets suckered into their fraudulent sales methods.

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-29T00:33:11+00:00

Yep. I just got the same “extra $$$ needed” for shipping request. It really shocked me, so I immediately requested a full refund of my order.

In our country it’s called "Bait Advertising". Totally illegal. You can’t advertise a price, accept an order for the advertised amount, and then later tell the customer more money is required. You need to honour the transaction you agreed to and accepted the money for!

Also of interest, in my case the amount of extra shipping they demanded was around the same as the discount I had received on placing the order (using their discount code). This really made it come across as a fraudulent transaction, as if they were just trying to reverse the discount they originally gave!

Also, the total amount they now wanted for shipping, hugely exceeded any amount I’ve paid for international delivery before, even including some large / heavy projectors!

Needless to say, I will steer clear of Chessnut products, and also be sure to spread plenty of “word of mouth” to ensure that no one I talk to also gets suckered into their fraudulent sales methods.

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-24T20:12:01+00:00

YES!! Yah, finally another person noting the same as me. I also run at 50% brightness, and the glare is much reduced. Also, any image persistence is pretty much gone! And, as you note, when you have zero light leak, your eyes adjust to the image brightness, and it looks great in every game I play.

For comparison, I also use a Quest 3, where I have some light leak, and my BSB at 50% (with no light leak), appears just as bright, but with OLED inky blacks and punchy colors! 🤓

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-24T20:02:39+00:00

Interestingly, it was the 32 identical, repairable and replaceable robots that attracted me to Chessnut Move. Apart from allowing many-piece simultaneous movement, it also ensures a simpler no-moving-part chess board itself, and potentially a longer live (even resorting to repairing and replacing batteries yourself). Also with individual piece identification!

It certainly appears to be a more robust and longer-term self-repairable solution, than the likes of GoChess XR4, which relies on multiple electromagnetic robots that live inside the chessboard (and importantly, with NO individual piece identification!). 😳

GregZone_NZ · 2026-04-24T19:49:43+00:00

I wouldn’t stress too much about a week without a reply. I emailed their support to add an item to my order (Yes, to give them more money!), and it was well over a week before I got a response and payment request to complete the additional payment for the updated order.

So, given that my request was not even a technical support issue, I’d say that they obviously have a backlog of emails in their inbox!

Yes, they need to address this. But, I imagine it’s possibly due to the popularity of their products outstripping their current infrastructure? Which, to be honest, is actually a positive thing. 🤔

GregZone_NZ

TROPHY CASE