I’m going to touch VERY briefly on two boards I just picked up from Seeed Studio. Very briefly because I thought they’d be running on ESP32 chips – but they aren’t – I guess the giveaway is in the name (nRF52840) Here they are, the demos are very pretty indeed…
Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5 – first look
A small package of Seeed XIAO ESP32 boards has arrived here in sunny Galera for me, and the first thing that caught my eye was the provision for a battery and an external RF antenna. In case anyone is wondering, XIAO is pronounced “SHYOW” or near enough. This is a…
New goodies from Wrap-it-Solutions
Ok, Before anyone says anything, I received a package in the post this morning that I’ve been waiting for for quite some time from Wrap-it-Solutions. No, they’re not sponsoring this – they just sent me the kit – no conditions. DHL Gripe Jump straight to “The gear…” if you don’t…
The All-New Sonoff E-Ink Zigbee Temperature Humidity Sensor
A quick blog to go along with the video I’ve made on the new Sonoff SNZB-02UL sensor – released September 24, 2026. As I’ll be on the road, here it is a few hours early (depending where you live of course). Please watch the video which gives you an overview…
Radxa Q8B “Flagship Edge AI SBC”
In mid-August this year I took an interest in the Radxa Linkr KVM – and all I have to say on that is that it works perfectly over WiFi, offering KVM features in a slim stick. HDMI in, USBC out to the target machine – USB power. It’s just as…
Lora “Letterbox” Project – PART 2
No, Pete’s not regressing to a bygone age. I happen to have a bunch of LOLIN Mini D1 ESP8266 boards lying around, abandoned when I discovered the all-singing ESP32 – and I HATE to see waste – so I’ve had an idea forming for the LoRa Letterbox Alert for the…
Sonoff Zigbee Smart Thermostat
I’ve been writing about thermostat designs since 2016, at which point I was making my own because I found the thermostats on the market somewhat lacking, especially if you wanted to provide remote access including guest and holiday rental access. Then along came Google Nest, all very nice, but it…
LoRa Letterbox Alert – At LAST
Way back in February 2025, I was sent a pair of Reyax LoRa modules to try out and review. They duly went into the increasingly dangerous pile of interesting hardware waiting for attention and frankly, I never got around to using them. Having no idea how to use LoRa and…
MORE Router Resurrection !!
Xiaomi Mi AC2100 – back from the almost-dead This formerly rather tired-looking old Xiaomi Mi AC2100 router has just had a bit of a resurrection. After a good clean-up and an upgrade to the very latest OpenWrt, it’s now been pressed back into service as a handy network extender. Initially…
There are Routers and Routers – Take Care
If, like me, you have a home with more than one router, this may interest you. I can’t get broadband as such here, there is only one company in our village that provides fibre and they won’t provide it to our house because they’re useless. Accordingly, I have two choices:…
M5Stack M5Stick CPlus and ESPHome
Without really realizing it, over the last couple of months I’ve become pretty much addicted to ESPHome. Having tried every different method of programming IOT devices over the years, I still love Tasmota for certain things and use it on many devices, but for ease of use (if not memory…
Two M5Stack Displays, One ESPHome Project
Years ago (2021) I ended up with a pair of rather different little M5Stack units — an M5 Tough and an M5Stack Core2/M2 — and yesterday decided they deserved something more interesting to do than sit around running demonstration software. The answer was ESPHome. The idea was simple enough: turn…
The New Sonoff CAM Glassview
The Glassview is the latest smart window camera from Sonoff, and looking at it, it seems to be a fairly ordinary USB-powered WiFi IP camera. And it is at least, at first glance – but read on – it’s actually quite good when you get into it… The product is…
Mikrotik RB2011UiAS Router – From the Grave
Sorry – I couldn’t resist the snazzy title photo. Real world version coming up… this old router was given to me by a friend many YEARS ago and it has sat in a cupboard gathering dust – he was done with it when he gave it to me for free!!!…
ESPHome BLE Proxy Monitor 3.1.1
This is the latest and hopefully final ever version of my ST7789v-based ESPHome-based BLE Proxy now turned general useful BT/IP tool – is there no stopping me? Well, I’m writing this for two reasons: But there’s far more to the story than this: Firstly, let me tell you – I…
Sonoff TRV Gen2
The Sonoff TRV Gen2 is a Zigbee thermostatic radiator valve. Straight up front, I can’t show you it running fully right now because I don’t have any radiators, but towards Christmas I shall install this on my livingroom radiator back in the UK. For now, I can tell you that…
TTGO T-Display – ESPHome BLE Scanner
I’ve had a couple of these little TTGO T-Display boards sitting around for quite some time. They are cheap ESP32 boards with a surprisingly good little colour display, two buttons and USB-C. I originally found that one of mine was already running some very old firmware. It was displaying the…
Invaders on a single WS2812B strip?
I’m calling the game LED Ladder. A couple of days ago I saw a YouTube video from a guy who made a game gadget with some code using a ws2812b strip, an ESP32 – and some real buttons… arcade-style. No code available – then my friend Antonio spotted another video…
My Abrobot Bluetooth Proxy for Home Assistant
Just a few days ago this little project was the poor brother of the two projects that succeed it. But hey – things change and this is now a VERY useful tool – I hope you enjoy. The Abrobot is a cheap ESP32 board with tiny display, widely available on…
A Better ESPHOME Bluetooth Proxy and BLE Scanner
I won’t go through the entire workings of my latest BLE Scanner and bluetooth proxy here. It is all detailed in the previous blogs – this is a major functional development of my previous effort using a better processor with more RAM. Suffice it to say that marvellous as the…