Youpin (Xiaomi) Duka 40m LS-P Digital Laser rangefinder

This is a little unit that seems solidly constructed with an aluminium case measuring 86 x 22 x 11 mm. It comes with an attachable lanyard (quite fiddly to get through the hole) and it charges via miniUSB. It only weights 28g.

It has a backlit LCD and two buttons. The button (on the same side as the LCD) starts the laser and the side button changes modes. Unfortunately it's quite complicated to work out the modes as the instruction manual is in Chinese. Units can be set to metres, inches or feet.

The stated maximum distance is 40m and though not fully tested, if it's dark and you can see the dot, it does measure long distances, it can measure continuously as it moves around. It also measures: - 

• Area
• Volume
• Front and Back reference
• Pythagorean
• Max and Min
• One button angles

Though some are relatively easy to work out how to use, without an English manual some of the modes won't make much sense.

The sensitivity does seem to be quite good and it's possible to see the red dot in quite bright outside conditions, though in order to measure the distance of something small, it's likely to be very difficult just in trying to keep the beam steady enough to keep it on the target area. The measurements are accurate to about 2mm.

The main button on the side of the LCD.

Long press turns the ranger on or off.

A 3s press should reset the measuring mode.

A short press will start the measuring mode and another short press will store it (each time).

A 1.5 second press and it will start continuously measuring (the display will show the maximum and minimum measurements).

Clicking the side button will put the device into area measurement (a trapezoid will show on screen), then clicking the top button will measure one side and a second press the 2nd side and an area displayed.

The side button pressed again will put the system into volume mode (a cube is shown on the display) and then the top button pressed for the three measurements.

A third press on the side button will put the unit in Pythagorean mode - a triangle will show (a squared + b squared equals c squared) and pressing to top button will measure a and then b.

A fourth press and a double Pythagorean mode showing a two triangles. Then top button will be a, b and e (the edge and vertices of the triangle and the base c will be calculated).

A 5th press and it's subtracted Pythagorean as above, but c is the base length between the last edge (e) and middle length (b).

The 6th press should put the system in angle mode, so press top button and you measure the base of the triangle, then another press and it will measure the height and calculate the hypotenuse.

There is also a settings mode.

It costs around $16 from your Chinese eCommerce site.

Have a little light in your life

Beryl as was Blaze have released a new light designed for portability. It's called the Pixel.

It's quite small being an oval about 2cm long with a ring of LEDs around the edge and a single push-button in the middle. Surprisingly in this day and age it uses micro-USB to charge and not USB-C (Charging cable supplied). There's also a clear clip that the Pixel oops into. The flip can then be attached to a pocket or belt or using the supplied rubber strap attached to a bike or other mode of transport.

There's also a velcro strap which will allow the clip to attach to a helmet.

There are 4 modes that are accessed using the central button, long press and the Pixel will turn on (by default it is all white). A single press then cycles to all red, the next press goes to pulsating white and finally to pulsating red, then solid white again. A long press will turn the Pixel off. The solid white and red are pretty bright.

Beryl claim 10 hours of use on a single charge.

The Pixel costs £19.99 direct from Beryl.

There's a new smartwatch on the BLOCKs

After a 2 year wait, the BLOCKS smartwatch is now live on Kickstarter. It has a round face and comes in 3 colours (Onyx Black, Marble White, Sunrise Red) with a 360 x 360 colour display with haptic feedback.

Inside it's got quite a lot of technology inside the core itself: -

• Snapdragon 400 CPU
• WiFi supporting 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.1 (Bluetooth Low Energy/Bluetooth SMART)
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Flash (ePOP
• 1.35" fully round display
• Accelerometer / Gyroscope
• Power button
• Microphone
• Vibration (motor)

It runs a (full) version of Android Lollipop (not Android Wear) which gives the core module much more functionality than standard Android based smartwatches. It doesn't stop there as the watch can be upgraded with modules (blocks) which can be thought of as strap links. A large wrist will support 4 blocks, while a more petite wrist should support 3.

Though designed to support extra modules, the watch core (i.e. the main round watch bit) will function by itself and the lowest cost option is just the core and a strap.

The BLOCKS smartwatch is fully compatible with both iOS (v8+) and Android.

The exciting bit is the additional modules, the following are available via the Kickstarter campaign: -

• Extra battery (the main battery lasts about a day and a half, this extends the period by at least 20%)
• Heart Rate module - uses and optical sensor
• GPS module
• NFC Module - may support contactless payment
• Adventure module - it measures altitude, pressure and temperature

Next year the following modules are planned (Phase 2): -

• GSM module - insert a SIM and leave your phone at home
• Fingerprint module - authenticate things, maybe NFC payments
• LED module - a torch?
• Button module - use for emergency alerts or anything else you can think of using a button for

Then at a later date the following modules might come into being: -

• Air Quality module
• Camera module
• Flash Memory module
• Stress Levels module

The smartphone app allows further modules to be purchased (BLOCKstore), customise watch faces and buy watch apps (BLOCKSware?).

The basic BLOCKS core (and strap) starts at $195. The Super Early Bird (sold out) was at $250, the Early Bird (one left at time of publishing) was $260 and the Late Early Bird is $275 which goes up to $285 when all the early birds have gone. All of the later pricing includes for modules and further modules can be purchased for $30. There are also options to purchase multiple units.

BLOCKS has now been fully funded (the campaign launched at 5pm UK time) and has raised over $300,000 of a $250,000 target, that's $300,000 in under 2 hours!!!