Speed monitoring of work vehicles is common and sometime stated on a back window sticker. Employers should always be able to trust their staff when using work vehicles.
The news story mentioned can be seen here.
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We are now Buy New Zealand Made Service certified
The New Zealand Service logo. Trademarked. There has been a New Zealand Made campaign running since 1988. Since it was for products only Ecotech Services would not be eligible for a licence. Last month (July 2024) the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign launched a trademarked New Zealand Service licence. We applied for one and since Ecotech Services met all of the criteria they issued a licence for us to use the trademark.
As well as offering a repair and recycling service we also sell a wide range of mostly second hand and refurbished products.
We are a socially responsible company so we make every attempt to help the New Zealand economy to help the people of New Zealand.
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Our X, formerly known as Twitter, account
(Image from Algorithm Watch.) X, formerly known as Twitter, developed a toxic nature and became rife with misinformation after it was purchased by Elon Musk.
Because of this we have decided to close our account. There has been a large number of account holders that decided to leave the social media service for the same reason.
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Dishonest manufacturing
This no name powerbank with solar charging came in for recycling and it is anything but powerful. The battery is swollen and the case is bowed because of it.
It is quite dishonest of the manufacturer to put such a small battery in a large enclosure. Not only could the battery be taller but it could also be thicker. There are two foam rubber spacers used to fill the empty space in the enclosure.
The purchaser would be quite unaware of the small battery size and would assume that a physically large enclosure would equate to a larger energy capacity than a smaller one. If I find a suitable battery I would be able to more than double the capacity of the powerbank.
Please everybody, avoid products that are of such bad quality that the manufacturer is too scared to put their name on it!
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Blatant and arrogant dumping
We had this stuff dumped in front of our rubbish skip during broad daylight on a workday.
It is a collection of stuff that is not at all related to what we accept for recycling. There is some sort of cot, a paddle board, a bike pump (that might be ok), a home made toy train, and a few other things. It is surprising that none of us noticed it being dumped given that we go in and out of the back door pretty regularly.
Does the person that dumped it think they are doing us a favour? Well they are not! A similar thing happens at the charity shops. All sorts of things get dumped there that are of little or no value.
It seems that some people overlook a rational appraisal of the value of goods to justify dumping it for free. In the case of this dumped stuff the value for resale is about 25 cents for the metal and the rest would unfortunately have to be sent to landfill.
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Torch repair
This small LED torch came in for recycling. The batteries were stuffed. Cleaned the battery contacts and put some new ones in. It worked but not very well. It would flicker especially if the case was pressed. I took it apart, squirted some contact cleaner in the switch but it would still flicker. And then I noticed something.
The tab from the battery contact was shorting out to the LED PCB. It is thin metal so it bends easily. Either it was not bent down properly in the factory or it moved when the batteries were changed.
It was easily fixed. I bent the tab down and put a little patch of adhesive foam over it. We now have yet another torch that we can use and another item is saved from being recycled.
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New look website
After having the same website design for almost ten years we have decided to refresh its appearance. It still uses the excellent WordPress CMS and still has a number of plugins making a wide range of functions available to visitors.
We have checked the site for any potential bugs but if you find any or have any suggestions on improving it please let us know.
The upgrade was carried out by a small team of talented in-house staff members.
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Our staff now get free public transport
The Metro card is used for paying public transport fares in Christchurch. Ecotech Services now pays for all of the public transport fares for staff members. This means that they get free transport for both commuting to work and for any other activity.
This is a small measure to help with climate change mitigation by encouraging staff to use public transport.
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Pixel TC-252 photography timer/intervalometer and customer services impresses Megan
It’s not often that I’m blown away by outstanding customer service but today I was.
While browsing the aisles at Ecotech Services (as you do….) I spotted a Pixel TC-252 Timer Remote Control camera remote shutter complete with its manual sitting on the shelf with the rest of the camera accessories (chargers, filters, and other bits and pieces). This device has a small LCD screen and quite a few buttons. It appeared at a quick glance to have quite a few features.
As I’m getting into photography and getting interested in chasing auroras and shooting the Milky Way, and maybe doing time lapses, my interest was instantly aroused, so I told my partner Alan Liefting that I was going to take it home to check it out. “Where did you find that?” he asked me. (Ha I spotted it first!! but I might let him borrow it….) The device is made by a Hong Kong based company called Pixel. After a quick Google search I found their website and had a read of the info. The remote has a lot of great features. It can do a single shot, multi shot, bulb, delayed and even a timer that can do multiple time delay shots – an intervalometer – so it can do time lapse. Perfect for astrophotography! (now I just have to wait for a star tracker to turn up at Ecotech Services – dreams are free!!) It turns out that the cable is connected to the remote via a 2.5mm plug and a range of different cables for different cameras are available. I tried pressing the biggest button which turned it on, and it fired up with a logo, then appeared to shut down after a short period. I wasn’t sure if this was normal behaviour or if it had a fault.
The manual didn’t really shed any light and a quick Google search found the Pixel website which had a chat feature so I thought I’d give it a go. The person on the other end was more than helpful. After I described the situation, they got me to send them a video of what the remote was doing, checked it against the behaviour of one they had at their end and got me to do some testing (see what happened when the batteries were replaced – it fired up). It turned out that what was happening was normal in single shot mode. I then tried clicking into the other features of the device and the appropriate displays came up on the screen, so it appears to work. The Pixel rep then gave me the specs of what cable I would need to find. They gave me their model number, which I expected, but also the specs of a generic cable that will do the job and make this remote work with both of our cameras. I was extremely impressed with the level of help given to a random customer who had not purchased their product, nor was likely to purchase a cable from them (they even said to me that the freight to buy from them directly would kill it). If you are into photography and are looking for a good quality remote timer/intervalometer, look into the Pixel.
Here is a review (should have watched that first!):
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Price increase
EDITED
As of the 1st of April 2023 some of our prices will increase due to increased costs.
Item code Description Old price New price 00100 Admin – per 10 min $10.00 $12.00 30100 Recycling labour – per 10 min $11.00 $12.50 34234 LCD television recycling $20.00 $25.00 34160 UPS recycling $0.00 $10.00 32112 Alkaline battery recycling $3.50 $4.50 32190 Battery recycling – unsorted $4.50 $5.00 We attempt to keep our prices as low as possible so any increasing costs must be passed on since they cannot be absorbed by us.
