Tamlee: March 2015

The TP-Link TL-WR841ND is an economical router suitable for basic networking needs for home or small office. It offers 802.11n wireless connectivity and comes at a very affordable price. The configuration options are basic, and the router is not suitable for long range. However, if you’re looking for a low cost device for connecting wirelessly to the Internet in an apartment or a small home, then this router meets your needs. You must also be willing to give up on ultra-fast Internet speed when connecting via this device.

It has a nice look and is a relatively lightweight router. The connectivity ports are on the rear of the device. The front top side has an array of LED status lights.

The average-sized router hosts four 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports. It also connects to a standalone modem via a WAN port. Two external 3dBi antennas are connected to the router for wireless connections. If you’re looking for additional coverage, you can replace the detachable antennas with longer range antenna units or antenna extenders.

The 802.11n standard router is capable of transmitting data at a rate of 300 Mbps. If you’re upgrading from 11g standard device, you will find significantly enhanced speed and range on this device. Disconnections at longer range will also be lesser compared to 11g products. At this speed, it is capable of running VoIP applications, online gaming and high definition videos without delay.

It is easy to configure the router via a simple Web interface. It offers a step-by-step procedure that walks you through the setup. There is also the option to manually access standard settings, such as port forwarding and DHCP. A basic firewall is also available that can be turned on or off. Other options include MAC, domain and IP filtering.

With its IP QoS, the TL-WR841N ensures optimum bandwidth consumption and control during heavy data usage. This feature allows users connected to a small network to receive an allocated bandwidth and prevents applications, such as torrent clients to steal excessive bandwidth.

It features WPA, WPA2 and WEP keys as well as TKIP and AES encryption. The router lacks the option to transition between the wireless standards, so users may feel stuck between 802.11g/b/n modes. There are up to 13 different wireless channels to switch from. Users can also choose between 20MHz, 40MHz and automatic mode. With the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) key, users simply have to press the WPS button to establish a WPA2 secure connection that offers enhanced security compared to WEP encryption.

Compared to other routers in this price range, the TL-WR841N delivers superior performance in terms of range as well as data transfer speed. It is capable of delivering an average throughput greater than 6.5 megabytes per second at close range and more than 6 megabytes per second at a range of 10 meters. At longer range though, the data transfer speed falls dramatically and may possibly reduce to half at a distance around 20 meters. If obstacles are placed between the router and the connected device, the speed may even be slower.

Overall, the WR-841N is a decent router suitable for home use. While excellent for usage in an apartment or small home, you may experience troubles upon increasing the range. The router is however, unsuitable for business use where you expect high speed connectivity without any interruption issues.

TP-LINK TL-WR841N Wireless N300 Home Router Review

MIOPS is a new smartphone-controlled camera trigger created by the minds behind the Nero Trigger. Looking to get financed through Kickstarter, the team behind it hopes to combine all of the features users want in a high-speed camera trigger into one convenient device.

MIOPS delivers all of the features required for high-speed photography in a single unit and provides advanced features via a total integration with the smart-phone platform. It will make taking creative photos so easy that you will have the opportunity to reveal your skills with great shots. MIOPS will be your favorite photography equipment.

MIOPS is not the first trigger in the market, but it is going to be the best one. You can control MIOPS with your smart-phone over Bluetooth. You can adjust the settings using dedicated smart phone application and send them to MIOPS with a simple click on your phone.You can either use MIOPS for basic functions like high-speed and lightning photography, but you can also let him perform complex scenarios like combining different modes in the same setup. If you don’t want to use a smart-phone, you can always configure MIOPS using the on-board buttons and colorful LCD screen. MIOPS will have an upgradable firmware. It will be open to new features and upgrades will be free for life-time. You will be able to charge MIOPS with any USB charger. It will be light weight, compact sized and compatible with most of DSLR cameras.

MIOPS is a standalone, small factor device which can trigger your camera or flash unit. It has three different sensors; light, sound and laser. MIOPS uses these sensors to detect external events such as lightning, fireworks, popping balloon or a laser beam cut by an obstacle, just to name a few. When such an event is detected, it triggers your camera or flash unit. MIOPS has an input port where you can hook up external sensors as well. You can for example hook up a pressure sensor and use the pressure as a triggering event. It is possible to program MIOPS so that it will take a picture whenever someone steps on your door mat. You just need to place a pressure sensor under the mat and connect it to MIOPS. There are so many different sensors out there and this means you have unlimited options as well to demonstrate your creativity with MIOPS.

MIOPS is not bigger than a credit card and only less than an inch in thickness. It is also light weight and consumes very little space in your camera bag. This is especially important if you carry your other heavy equipment in your bag. MIOPS has a colourful LCD screen and easy to use interface. You can configure your device using the on-board buttons and the screen. It gets even easier if you do this over your smart-phone. MIOPS has Bluetooth capability and with its dedicated smart-phone application you can configure MIOPS without even touching it. All of the device settings are also available on the application. On top of the basic modes and settings, the smart-phone application offers other features like cable release modes and scenario processing mode where you can define event scenarios using the combination of the different sensors. You can for example create a custom scenario like this: I want the sound mode to be activated after the sunset. You configure this using the application and the scenario is sent to MIOPS over Bluetooth connection. Afterwards, you can take your phone and go away, MIOPS will take care of the rest. It does not need the smart-phone to be close by to operate. You can store the scenarios in the application and reuse them whenever you want. You can store up to three scenarios and each of them can check against up two five different conditions measured by all of the sensors. MIOPS is Bluetooth 4.0 compatible, so it is energy efficient, has great coverage and is compatible with iOS and Android smart-phones with Bluetooth 4.0.

A mini-USB port has been added to MIOPS and it serves two important purposes. First of all, you can charge your MIOPS over this USB connection. You can also use a compatible USB charger or you can even charge it in your car just as you charge your cell phone. The rechargeable battery of MIOPS will last for days, it has energy saving features so you don’t have to charge your battery very often. The second purpose it serves is the firmware upgrade. MIOPS will have an upgradeable firmware, so you can have new features with the release of new firmware. You will be able to download the new firmware and upgrade your MIOPS within a few minutes.

Photo: Alexander Heinrichs

High speed photography can be tricky sometimes. In some cases, you will need to trigger your flash unit, not your camera. In order to cover this, MIOPS has two dedicated outputs, one is for the camera and the other one is for the flash unit. You can use them separately or at the same time. They are electrically isolated from each other, so there is no risk of a short circuit. Also, each output isolates MIOPS from your camera or flash unit optically. This means in fact there is no electrical connection between your camera and MIOPS at all. One end of the connection cable goes to the remote shutter release port of your camera and the other ends goes to MIOPS. The cables are exchangeable, you can use your MIOPS with different cameras. You don’t need to buy an extra unit for your second camera. MIOPS is compatible with most of the major makes and models. You just need to get the proper cable for your other camera. The interface of the cable connection is a standard 2,5 mm jack. Extension cables are commonly available in the market if you have a different setup in your mind where the camera has to stay far away from MIOPS. The same is also valid for the flash unit connection. It uses the standard 3,5 mm connection. Some DSLR cameras do not have a remote shutter release port, instead of this they can be triggered with an IR remote controller. If you own such a camera, you are also covered. MIOPS can trigger your camera with IR connection as well.

Which Operation Modes Does MIOPS Have?

MIOPS is a high-speed camera trigger with multiple modes combined in a single box with all built-in sensors. In order to use the available modes of MIOPS, you don’t need to add anything else. Everything is already in the unit and ready to use. Switching between different modes is just a matter of a few clicks and it happens in seconds. It has basically six different modes, let’s see them all.

LIGHTNING

Even this mode is called lightning, there is actually so much more about it. Lightning is only one of the events that MIOPS can detect with its light sensor. When the lightning strikes, MIOPS detects in a few nanoseconds and triggers your camera.

Photo: Bryan Snider

LASER

MIOPS can detect laser beams as well and they make the detection of so many events possible. The idea is very simple. If the laser beam is broken, then there must be something happened. And most of the time something happens in milliseconds, but it is not a big deal for MIOPS. The laser beam is so thin, even a water drop can break it.

SOUND

When it is all about high-speed photography, sound mode is the mode where things get serious. This is the essential mode to take high-speed pictures in a controlled studio environment. Even MIOPS is fast enough to take pictures of bullets or arrows, your camera is not that fast. Average DSLR camera has a lag time of about 50 milliseconds. This is too long if your objects fly by in a few milliseconds. The sound mode of MIOPS does the trick.

TIMELAPSE

When it comes to MIOPS, it is not just sensors. In timelapse mode, MIOPS does not use any sensors but it benefits from the electronics and software to take sequential pictures within a time period with equal time difference between each of them. You can also specify the exposure of the pictures just per your wish. After you have adjusted your parameters, MIOPS will take care of the rest. You can do the adjustment on MIOPS itself or you can also use the smartphone application to configure MIOPS.

HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos look to good to be true because they are actually not. Digital processing of the same picture with different exposures is the main idea behind it. It is again done with picture processing software but it is the quality of the single pictures which makes a great HDR picture.

External Port

MIOPS offers unlimited creativity not just with the built-in sensors and software but also with the capability of connecting external sensors as well. If you have a high-speed photography project in your mind which uses another type of sensor, this is not a blocker for MIOPS. MIOPS can accept signals from external sensors with the dedicated port, so you are not limited to light and sound events only. There are many different sensors in the market. Temperature, pressure and humidity sensors are only a few of them. If they are electrically compatible (which means the output signal must be between 0 and 3V) you can connect them to MIOPS.

Smartphone Compatible & Bluetooth

The Smartphone app offers many advantages and features. First of all, you can take the total control of your MIOPS with the app. Any mode and any parameter can be adjusted with the app and then you can send the settings and commands to MIOPS with a single touch over Bluetooth connection. If MIOPS is mounted on your camera or tripod, you can leave your setup as it is and control MIOPS without even touching it. You will not need to adjust your setup again, nothing will move at all.

If the concept behind MIOPS sounds familiar, it’s because it’s not too far off from the original Trigger Trap. The key difference between the two is that MIOPS offers wireless Bluetooth control, while TriggerTrap connects your phone to your camera using a cable.

To pre-oder a unit for yourself, head on over to the Kickstarter campaign, where a pledge of $199+ will secure a device and push it toward manufacturing.

Via (Kickstarter.com)

MIOPS: Smartphone Controlled High Speed Camera Trigger

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