I have a solar power setup for my external lighting here in Spain and for some time I’ve been having some kind of issue with (what I’m now fairly sure is) deteriorating battery capacity. My twin 100AH deep-discharge camping batteries are powered by a 250W 30v (or thereabouts) solar panel…
Haylou GT1 Pro Bluetooth 5.0 Earbuds vs my Xiaomi Mi Earbuds
I’ve been using my Xiaomi Mi buds for some months now – every night (I’m one of these sad types who sends themselves off to sleep with a late night “Daily Show” or similar on Youtube). As for the Mi buds themselves, not much to say, they work well, I’ve…
Node-Red Security – To Be or not To Be
You’ll find plenty of articles on adding or improving the security of Node-Red and countless other programs and utilities. What are not quite so prevalent are articles about removing security. I’ve been using Node-Red for my home automation for years now and frequently get annoyed, as the dashboard security, when…
Bakeey T90 Bluetooth Earbuds Smart Watch Update
This is new – a smartband with built-in Bluetooth earbuds – WELL, THAT’s handy for travelling. This entry is about the . I went out on a limb with this one – never seen anything quite like it but as the T90 was “different” – I simply had to have…
My Home Automation Endeavours – Updated
Skip to “present day” if you don’t want any background:-) As a current Node-Red/MQTT fanatic with some leanings toward HASS, It’s no secret that I’ve been playing with home automation since the mid-80s when a company founded by Aidan Ruff and myself created something called APPCON (for Application Controller). I…
RunCam 5 Orange Ultra-light 4K HD FPV Camera
The full title of this tiny 4K camera is and despite having 4K capability on my mobile phone, decided I just had to take a look at this model. Of course the gold standard for these sports movie cameras is usually thought of as the GoPro – but then similar…
Fun with the MUDI 4G LTE Private Router for Road Warriers
The Mudi Travel Router (GL-E750) is another product from my new favourite router company and is a neat, portable router for business travellers and others who want to secure their data on the go while sharing a mobile connection. First things first – the obligatory opening pics – here it…
Boxym Home Automatic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor
The(model CK-W133) is simple enough and fits on the wrist – as against the more usual type that fit around the upper arm and that means rolling up or removing your shirt. As someone who checks their blood pressure regularly I’ve wanted one of these for a while – I…
Sonoff DIY 4CHR3 and 4CH PROR3
This week I received a set of Sonoff units from Itead including the 4CHR3 and 4CHPROR3 (described as 4-gang Interlock/Self-locking/Inching WiFi DIY Light Switches) as well as a ZBMINI. I’ll cover that last item elsewhere as it is a small, Alexa/Google-compatible single-channel 10A power controller using Zigbee protocol. As for…
General Itead Sonoff ramblings – now with Zigbee
Sonoff Zigbee Bridge Early in June 2020 I received my long-awaited along with Itead‘s pre-programmed Zigbee CC2531 USB dongle which means I have written about low-power-consumption Zigbee devices including Itead devices (also some from ZemiSmart). In this update I’m including the new Sonoff sensors, the ZBMINI which is a Zigbee…
INUX3D TerraPi Dual SSD Assembly
This TerraPi Dual SSD “case” or “assembly” for the Raspberry Pi 4 is different, to say the least. Available in red, black or blue, this vertical case is also available in single and dual SSD versions. I can best describe this beast in pictures – so I will. I just…
PM2.5 O3 Ozone Detector
Some time ago I looked at an air quality monitor but this was not cased and though it worked perfectly, I had to hide it in my lab to avoid spouse commentsabout more gadgets. This from Banggood, on the other hand, is ready to go and looks the part. Complete…
UUGear RasPiKey eMMC module for RPi4
Arrived this week and now checked out – The UUGear RasPiKey. While a far cry from an SSD speed-wise, the RasPiKey seems like a nice alternative to an SD when running a Raspberry Pi 4 or similar because RasPiKey uses eMMC, which, while more expensive than SD, gererally has an…
LAOTIE N7S 3-Mode Foldable Electric Scooter
I’ll grant you the is a little out of the ordinary for this blog – but when Banggood asked what I thought about the idea, I simply could not help myself as I’ve never owned an electric bike/scooter of ANY kind before, despite driving cars for around half a century…
EDUP MESH WiFi Routers
I have a couple of rectangular in my office on test… Easy to use and with English instructions, the first of these neat, inexpensive 12v-powered routers hooked into my network immediately, providing WiFi connectivity immediately as well as high speed Ethernet output. These devices are meant to be easy to…
Tasmota – TDM, Tasmotize and TasUI
This is a never-ending story about Theo Arends’s much-loved alternative firmware for IOT (http://ota.tasmota.com/tasmota/tasmota.bin.gz) as Tasmota is now at stable release version 8.5.1 “Hannah” (update October 2, 2020) and development version 9.0.0.1 – I’ve upgraded my various ESP8266-based devices including Itead Sonoff BASIC, TH10, 4CH Pro, ProR2, Powr2, Shelly One,…
PiSugar 2 and PiSugar 2 Pro
I’m now the proud owner of both the PiSugar 2 and PiSugar 2 Pro These are un-interruptible power supplies for the Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi (3A, 3B, 3B+, 4B. Both of these boards come complete with magnetically attached Lithium battery – 1200maH capacity in the case of the…
Carku 64B versus D28A Portable Car Jump Starters
I have a couple of cars, one of which has a battery in doubtful state afet being flattened a few weeks ago. It works perfectly but knowing car batteries and their ability to recover from being flattened (or not) I at first figured I’d buy a battery charger – and…
Mikato S2 Smart PIR Toothbrush Sterilizer
It seems like an age ago that I wrote about the Soocas X3 Electric Toothbrushes.. and yet in fact it was just a couple of weeks ago – and now THIS – the (to give it the full title). I was and am impressed with the ultrasonic toothbrushes but even…
Laser Engraver Coming Up
I’m currently awaiting delivery of my new laser engraver but in the meantime, down at San Jose (the original one in Spain) on our weekend off, I just picked up this wonderful USB desk light – I could not resist showing it to you guys – as it occurred to…