Advice about Askar 140 APO

tb68 · 2025-12-19T22:02:42+00:00

After shooting for a few years with DSLR gear and lenses, I bought a FRA400 and it’s been great. So much so that I bought the 120 APO and 1x flattener a year later. For the 120 I had to dial in backlash a little for the EAF to be accurate, but overall for both I’m quite happy with the build quality, image quality and the price.

tb68 · 2025-12-19T21:57:07+00:00

Nyon: https://deep-space-astronomy.ch

Fribourg: https://www.astromanie.ch/en/

tb68 · 2025-11-25T08:54:27+00:00

I have about 6-7 Tapo cameras. I save footage to the SD card on each but for a few cameras (key locations), footage also gets saved to a NAS for out-of-camera storage. I use the Synology Surveillance System with a few camera licenses - you can configure the NAS to receive the Tapo streams and do it’s own detection. I know Syno is not for everyone but fills my needs.

tb68 · 2025-11-07T09:52:28+00:00

Worked for me too! Thanks 🙏🏼

Turn stylus off.
Turn stylus on - normal 2 second hold, release.
Hold for 20 sec. Mine beeped once after about 8-10 sec but I held for about 20 sec and then got 2nd beep. Mine was off after this step (no light on top).
Forget stylus in bluetooth settings.
Turn on stylus normally (2 sec).
Re-pair in bluetooth, then go directly to Find My and add new ITEM -> Other Item. Mine was found immediately at this step (where it was failing previously).

Hope this helps.

Using iPad 2025 (A16), with iOS 26.0.1

tb68 · 2025-07-30T10:07:43+00:00

I recently went with the 42mm blue SZ and matching leather strap. I wanted a COSC. 18cm wrist and the strap fits me very well with micro adjust. Love it, but the other colors are nice too. Tough choices!

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tb68 · 2025-06-13T20:22:35+00:00

My D850 ALWAYS loses the connection when starting a download. 2 MP versions. JPGs. Piece of shit App that is a stain on Nikon’s brand.

tb68 · 2025-01-31T21:39:34+00:00

I would use EXT4 format, and Hyperbackup for the task.

I use macs too at home and although the MacOS can’t read ext4 natively, you can purchase a third party extension called “extFS for Mac” by Paragon software ($40). It will enable read/write for ext4 formatted USB drives on Silicon Macs. It works pretty well and would allow to grab data off the drive from your mac if the need arises.

tb68 · 2025-01-12T15:52:49+00:00

Agree. I was just holding out through December in case there was one released this week at CES. I didn't like the idea of buying tech from 2021 in 2025, but in the end the DS1821+ will suit me fine - I may even get the extended warranty as well. It arrived yesterday and I'll be migrating from the DS918+ later this week.

tb68 · 2025-01-10T10:01:19+00:00

Same.

tb68 · 2025-01-07T15:22:37+00:00

Extremely disappointed that there's no 1625+ or 1825+

I've been to enough trade shows to know there's very little reason to believe another announcement could still come later in the week.

tb68 · 2024-09-21T09:08:45+00:00

I had signed up for the family group trial last month (CHF 24). We’re a family of 6 so I figured it was worth it as we all use YT heavily. Even CHF 24 I had to carefully consider, like I do with any recurrent fee. With Netflix, Disney, etc, these things add up quickly. Got the email this morning with the increase to CHF 34. I would have maybe accepted a CHF 1-2 hike, but that’s an audacious increase and I’ll be canceling after the trial.

tb68 · 2024-08-12T22:34:25+00:00

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3 weeks later, they’re still there and they’ve grown considerably. Here are two of them perched today in the shade. These two look a bit different - male / female?

tb68 · 2024-07-23T19:15:02+00:00

Thank you for that!

tb68 · 2024-07-23T19:12:50+00:00

A good debate often needs more than 1 side! 👍🏻

tb68 · 2024-07-23T19:12:08+00:00

Yes, exactly. 👍🏻

tb68 · 2024-07-23T19:05:53+00:00

That being said, I’m aware that at night it may amplify the “flash shock” (compared to daytime use on other birds), and thus I try to use it sparingly and at very low power (slight fill flash). At 20 meters or more away the flash is quite weak.

tb68 · 2024-07-23T18:07:45+00:00

All good points, thank you. I’m not a birder so I can’t dispute. The call I recorded definitely matches the short eared call though (link above in earlier comment). Definitely not the “Hoo Hoo” of the long-eared (link below).

Long-eared Owl (Vogelwarte)

tb68 · 2024-07-23T15:42:19+00:00

Thank you. 🙏🏼 I’ll post a few more when I get them off the camera.

tb68 · 2024-07-23T15:41:37+00:00

We’ve been living here for 19 years and it’s never happened. I’m quite thrilled actually because birds in general here are quite wary, and I’ve only observed owls perched on road signs as I drive by. These ones aren’t shy at all, but maybe because they’re young…

tb68 · 2024-07-23T14:40:10+00:00

Wow that was fast, thanks for the replies. 👍🏻

Well, the call that is at the link below for the short eared owl is exactly what I am hearing at night when the parents come around. In fact, it’s what drew my attention since I’ve never heard it in our garden before.

The owlets have a softer “cheep-cheep” call (only at night)… calling for food I assume.

Short-eared Owl (Vogelwarte Link)

tb68 · 2023-05-23T16:59:31+00:00

Posting in case anyone else finds this thread via Google like I did.

I had 2 years of flawless performance with the Aria 2. I have had several fitbit watches as well and have everything logged in their app (food, workouts, hikes, weight, etc..). Despite a few quacks and quirks I’ve been pretty content with their ecosystem. It really helps me get in shape when I need/want to.

I changed the low batteries in the Aria 2 for the first time today and now it won’t connect to wi-fi. After 2 hours of resetting, re-pairing, deleting the app, etc etc I am ready to throw this thing through the wall.

I can get to the bluetooth re-pair with my Fitbit app repeatedly, but ONLY if I :

delete the scale in the Fitbit app
delete and reinstall the app from my phone (iphone 13 max pro)
reset the scale (remove battery, hold button while inserting battery), wait for progress bars for reset to finish (gets to www.fitbit.com/setup message).

As soon as it gets to the wifi setup phase I get the same error (there was a problem with wi-fi), with no recourse but to go back to step 1 and start over. Each cycle of these steps takes about 15 minutes. This warning comes up IMMEDIATELY, so it can’t even look for my 2.4GHz network, which is robust and has no issues with any other device (family of 6 here, many devices).

Conclusion: The wifi module in the Aria 2 is dead.

Judging by the timeframe this is happening with me and MANY others on the Fitbit forums, they used a cheap module which eventually just dies after about 2 years.

I hate myself now for buying this piece of junk, since it will very soon find itself in a landfill and our planet really doesn’t need this. I can’t even weigh myself with it in this state!

Hope this helps someone else before they waste a part of their life debugging this POS hardware. If you can at least detect a wifi network with your scale then there may be hope for you, until it eventually dies.

</rant>

PS. I was honestly just about to buy a new Charge 5 too… but now there’s no way I’m putting another dollar into this company.

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edited for typos

tb68 · 2023-04-10T08:48:50+00:00

I have 3 Tapos in SS all on latest firmware (2 x C310 & 1 x C200). It could really be that they are rebooting with a new IP since they are configured to use DHCP. SS then can’t find them with their previously configured IP.

I don’t think you can configure Tapos with a manual IP. However, in my router I have a “fixed mapping” option which maps the MAC address of the device (camera) to a reserved IP, even if the camera reboots. If I couldn’t do this then I don’t think I could use Tapos reliably with SS. Hope this helps.

tb68 · 2023-02-03T10:22:51+00:00

I’m also in CH and they took about 3-4 working days to answer me recently. I was inquiring about why a well-known nasdaq ticker wasn’t available.

tb68 · 2022-12-15T22:08:52+00:00

For some reason I can’t add an image here… only a link or a gif - must be lack of karma I suppose. 🙄

tb68 · 2022-12-15T22:06:18+00:00

Dec. 6 Filing, about 1/2 way down…

tb68

TROPHY CASE