I just finished updating my previous Christmas Time Again blog entry and pretty much exhausted the subject of which ESP chip to use – but I’m on a roll now. It occurred to me that I have a living room cabinet with RGB WLED lights on the back (lighting up…
Category: General
Christmas Time Again – Which ESP?
Once again it’s time to put up the Christmas lights on this year. I’m fitting those lovely string WS2812 LED lights to the tree. 400+ of them. Of course it’s 2025 and so we’ll be using WLED as usual – but this time with a sparkly new miniature and trendy…
Nous AZ7 Smart Zigbee Socket
Not a lot to say about the Nous ZigBee socket AZ7 except to say it’s a fairly normal looking smart socket with a button on the side for manual override on/off. It’s designed to run on ZigBee 3.0 (not WiFi) and handle 3680w load – that would be resistive load…
Nous Zigbee Household Combustible Gas Detector
The Nous E9 Gas Centre Spec reads as follows: Network Zigbee 3.0, operating voltage 100-240 volts… HOLD THE PHONE… it’s Zigbee. Why do we want 240 volts? OK, I’ve recovered from the shock. 240 volts it is – so it’s not only a sensor – it’s a Zigbee router. There’s…
The Nous L14 Zigbee Smart Water Valve
You might want to look up my Sonoff BSP article in here for comparison – as the L14 device is in many ways similar to the BSP. The Nous L14 is a Zigbee smart water valve. It is compatible with Zigbee2MQTT, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. Regular readers will know…
First Xmas Gift – The Apollo H-2 2025
If you’ve read my other Apollo blog entries, you’ll know I’m very impressed by their presence sensors and other ESP-based gadgets. This morning in the post arrived a small box from Apollo containing the Apollo annual holiday light-up, music-playing Xmas tree. Sadly, the Spanish post office didn’t believe the Apollo…
The All-New Sonoff Orb 4-in-1 Zigbee Button
Multi-scene buttons are not new, especially Zigbee. I have one or two from Aqara but this new Zigbee “scene switch” has a couple of features worth noting. It runs on a CR2477 battery and has four actual buttons in the one round removable button, which simply magnetically mounts to the…
NanoKVM Pro – Another new contender
Unlike the JetKVM, this new NanoKVM Pro, on connecting USB power and which came from the target machine, and the HDMI, this time a full-size HDMI connector, the target PC came up in my main PC browser (I found the address of the KVM from my router – I could…
Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late
You’re right – I’m bored – I’m waiting for a load of new toys to arrive to write about. I’ve just spent the day at the coast with an ex-Microsoft pal of mine, avoiding crappy weather inland and on my return home tonight, my Bengal cat was deeply involved in…
An Exciting Shelly and Sonoff Friday
It’s Friday (August 2024 – see October 2025 update at the end) and I got up VERY early this morning and in this entry I have new devices from SHELLY – a pair of SHELLY MOTION devices (about which I’m quite excited) – and a not-so-new but handy Shelly RGBW…
Cheap USB Cameras – any good?
I generally use a OBSBOT Tiny 4K Webcam – and lovely it is too. But today I was trying to download a manual for another product (Switchbot Smart Wall Panel) and as I could not on this occasion use my phone camera and the only way to get the user…
LD2410C Presence Sensor – First Steps & Beyond
The LD2410C is a mmWave presence/movement sensor that is really cheap, widely available and with a little help and unserstanding, makes a GREAT alternative to infra-red and ultrasonic detectors – and at the price is suitable for everything from human presence/movement detection in farly large rooms right down to light…
And Now, the Reolink Duo 3v PoE Security Camera
This one’s a monster. The camera can run from 12v DC or Poe – i.e. a POE adaptor running power through an Ethernet cable – so it’s a wired camera – not WIFI – and high resolution with it. The Poe Adaptor is not supplied but Reolink make them as…
Sonoff SNZB-01P Button – A Brief Revisit
This will be brief but I want to showcase a button that has proven to be very useful in my Home Assistant based home control. Yes I have everything controlled by my phone and/or PC. I even have an ALL-OFF onscreen button for night-time – but in reality – it’s…
Switchbot Smart Video Doorbell
This new video doorbell has an indoor unit with 4.3″ (109mm) colour screen, a 2K camera with all the usual features you’ll see in the link below – along with in-depth specs. There’s likely a model number somewhere but I can’t find it. This new super-duper video doorbell is looking…
JETKVM – Useful tool or not?
I’m writing this blog entry using my spare Windows 11 PC connected via JETKVM – so I’m sitting at my normal fast PC (all hardwired) with the JETKVM at full screen hence I’m seeing my secondary PC full screen and accessing it to write this log. Slight key lag, actually…
Remembering OKW Enclosures
Well, that title makes it sound like they’re no longer around – far from it in fact. For years, before I left the UK to spend more time in Spain, I used to use the company OKW for small project cases. I just happened to be bored last week waiting…
Sonoff Fusion Zigbee Smart Shutter Wall Switch
This new (September 29, 2025) Fusion Series (Orb-ZBRBS) wall switch uses internally a Sonoff Mini-ZRBS-E controller module. And that is exactly WHAT? – I hear you say? Well, it’s a new, sleek, 2-channel Zigbee-controlled wall switch designed to control roller blinds. The controller needs live and neutral in (slight problem…
ESP32-C3 and LD2450 – A Quick Look
If you’re looking for cheap presence-movement-sensing in ESP-Home, you may have, like me spent a while looking at YouTube only to get disappointed. Several videos on the subject are by one guy who leads you to his LD2450 project on the basis of subscribing to his channel to get source…
A New Year’s AI Treat + September Updates
After a set of eye correction surgeries, I’m currently in between tech projects, soon to recommence (beginning of 2025). In the meantime – no doubt many of you will either be actively using AI in your jobs or like me tinkering with it to find out what’s useful and what’s…