Well, I was going to start this by showing you the unpacking of this new, exciting webcam – but I got over-enthusiastic about opening the packaging. I should start off by saying (a) I’m not on commission and (b) this is not a cheap camera. That out of the way……
Insta360 ONE X2 Camera Utter Idiot’s Guide
I have in front of me the Insta360 One X2 camera from Banggood – and no it’s not a sample – I bought it and I’m waiting for the selfie kit (purchased separately) to arrive. I paid (in Euros – I’ll leave readers to do the conversion) €376.66 for the…
Printer Ink Rant
On the subject of inkjet printers (probably definitely your printer) this guy has made a decent video about problems with ink and reliability. I usually America to have greater issues with planned obsolescence than Europe but the idea is sound. I’ve been banging this drum since probably before you heard…
1NCE SIMS – SOMETHING NEW
Do you have an IOT setup and maybe no WiFi – do you want a SIM so you can attach it to a cheap 3G/4G modem – or an old phone (or new phone for that matter) to do nothing but send the odd SMS and/or some data – but…
Aqara Opple – Learn with Peter
Anyone here old enough to remember the BBC show “Watch with Mother”? Well, I just acquired a pair of Aqara OPPLE wall switches – DUAL – Zigbee (3.0) – no wires, Chinese-only instrucions – so why not “learn with Peter”!! First things first, above on the left you see the…
Zigbee Development – The Really Big Update
Some time ago I wrote about the Sonoff inexpensive Zigbee dongle and various Zigbee hubs etc. At the time I was experimenting with HA (Home Assistant) and a load of other new things and didn’t really give Zigbee the attention it deserved. I’ve now come back to this with a…
GL-iNET Puli 4G LTE Wireless Router GL-XE300
The Puli (GL-XE300 “Industrial Grade” Wireless Router) is the latest in a long line of routers from GL-iNET – many of you may associate GL-iNET with the tiny, inexpensive Mango range of on-the-road routers (my first introduction to GL-iNET). Well, things have come a long way since then. (No comments…
The Genius Artillery 3D Printer – Amazing
I’ve been continually putting off assembling this Genius printer because I’ve assembled 3D printers in the past and what a nightmare they can be unless you have a workshop with plenty of space. At last, this morning I dug up the courage to open the box and checked out the…
70mai Midrive TP03 12V Portable Car Tyre Inflator
Ok, I’ll grant you, not very high-tech – but when I got the opportunity to get one of these to test back in late 2020, I happily jumped at the opportunity as I don’t trust the tyre pressure inflators (British spelling) in the few garages out here in the wilds…
Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro
This is about the Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro laser engraver with fixed focus 20W (input) laser, shipped to me by madethebest.com – important specs include the ability to engrave wood board, paper board, black acrylic, leather, food, stainless steel, powder coated metal and more with claimed cutting ability including…
Solar Acrylic Solar Lamps – the Horse – or the Owl?
I made a big deal out of these back in February, but one of my solar lights has given up due to internal corrosion (unusually wet winter/early spring) so I sent off for a replacement “Solar Acrylic LED Lawn Lamp” – we had a pair of owls in the garden…
Xiaomi Mijia 1S Vacuum Part 2 – the Spares
I’m not going to say any more about my superb point-scoring-with-the-wife Xiaomi (prounounced something like JAOOMEE with a soft J) Smart AI vacuum – but of course with any such gadget, no matter how good it is, there is always the question of spares (example – bargains back in the…
Itead WiFi Gadgets and More
I have just received a second Sonoff SNZB-02 temperature-sensing module (see my recent articles on Zigbee) which I have suitably renamed from the default cryptic name to SNZB-02-2 and this came complete with a battery sitting at 100% – here’s a thing, outside in our pergola, I’ve had a DHT22…
Zigbee development Part 2 – Aqara Sensors
I’m becoming increasingly impressed by the tiny Aqara sensors – first of today’s bunch – Original Aqara Smart Motion Sensor And here below is the motion sensor, running smoothly with my new Electrolama ZZH dongle (coordinator) running Zigbee2MQTT. I long-pressed the tiny button on the side/top/bottom of the sensor and…
Non-Contact IR InfraRed Thermometer
I just received this non-contact IR thermometer in the post from Banggood… looking good but at first I was a bit confused about the access control – according to the box there should be contacts under a quality control label on the bottom – no contacts for access control on…
Owon HDS272S Handheld Oscilloscope
Over the years I’ve had a number of Owon scopes, function generators and power supplies – so I’m pleased to now have my hands on their handheld HDS272S, a new, portable dual-channel scope which can also be used as a multimeter and function generator. As you’ll see, the scope/meter has…
Xiaovv B1 3MP Waterproof Outdoor IP Camera
Ok, so another outdoor video camera – so what? Well, unlike some other low-priced IP cameras – this one is 3MP as against 2MP – that’s a good start – and I noted it uses the V380 APP – which I already use with other WiFi IP cameras. AI human…
Atomic Radio-Controlled Silent Clock
This will be a short one about this clock module I just received from Banggood – not much you can say about a radio clock module that isn’t in the spec above though I have changed my original reviwe having realised the clock is not entierly reliable here in Granada…
Bluetooth 5 Earbuds Comparison
In today’s postbag, two sets of earbuds arrived. Here they are… AIRAUX AA-UM10 TWS Earphones and the BlitzWolf® BW-ANC3 bluetooth V5.0 Earphones. As usual, cost willl vary depending on where you live – see the links above for details and technical specs To look at, there’s not a lot between…
Alexa-Applestrudel (formerly Cakebaked formerly Remote2)
That’s node-red-contrib-alexa-applestrudel etc. – but the title was getting too long:-). This article is about Alexa-related “nodes” for Node-Red. To give this set of eight nodes (seven visible) their full title, the original offering was known as node-red-contrib-alexa-remote2 and when I first wrote this blog entry in September 2019. The…