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Month: July 2019

Diamond USB Wine Cork Light

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019 Peter ScargillGeneral10 Comments on Diamond USB Wine Cork Light

As far as simple gimmicks go, this new one is a “corker”. As many of you know, I’m a sucker for LED gadgets and have them all over the place. The full title for this winner is (corrected English spelling) “Colourful Diamond Shape USB Rechargeable Wine Cork LED Bottle Light”.…

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BigTimer and Amazon Polly Notifications

July 27, 2019July 27, 2019 Peter ScargillAmazon Alexa, Amazon Polly, bigtimerLeave a Comment on BigTimer and Amazon Polly Notifications

Sometimes it can be helpful to think outside of the box and I just did. We were discussing getting Amazon Echo to give out arbitrary notifications from a Raspberry Pi + Node-Red installation and after messing about with this for a while I remembered I have an Amazon AWS account…

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Alexa, Raspberry Pi and Sonoff

July 26, 2019February 12, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral17 Comments on Alexa, Raspberry Pi and Sonoff

Updated July 26, 2019: I am using a combination of Echo Dot generation 1 and generation 3 here in Spain. Amazon insist on using port 80 for gen 3 Echos, a port already used by something else on my Raspberry Pi 3-based home control system. I  am using port 8980…

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I7E Alfawise Fitness Tracker

July 25, 2019November 5, 2019 Peter ScargillAlfawise I7E20 Comments on I7E Alfawise Fitness Tracker

The I7E Fitness Tracker bracelet is my second bracelet of the day – this one came from Gearbest and comes in an adequate if basic case. As you can see, the bracelet is quite attractive. The App is the freely downloadable Zeroner Health Pro app available in both the Android…

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Alfawise T9 Bracelet

July 25, 2019August 13, 2019 Peter ScargillGeneralLeave a Comment on Alfawise T9 Bracelet

To give it the full title, this entry is about the Alfawise T9 Body Fat Fitness Tracker (or Smart Bracelet). With a 0.96 inch screen, the T9 uses an App (Android or IOS) called Gloryfit (I use the Android version from the Playstore). The bracelet uses an NRF52832 CPU and…

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QC 3.0 Car Chargers

July 23, 2019July 23, 2019 Peter ScargillQC3.0 Car Charger8 Comments on QC 3.0 Car Chargers

That’s it, all my “normal” USB chargers are gone – worse than useless for charging modern phones – and today the mail brought the second of a pair of purchased QC3.0 car chargers – I believe from AliExpress or Banggood. Look up this model in their ads based on price…

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SD Speeds and Reliability

July 23, 2019 Peter ScargillEvo+, Samsung Evo+ SDLeave a Comment on SD Speeds and Reliability

For years I’ve been promoting Samsung and Sandisk cards for use with SBCs such as the Raspberry Pi and similar. This article checks out ne A2 class cards and seems to come to the conclusion that the latter hold no benefits – indeed that the Samsung Evo+ in particular is…

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Umidigi S3 Pro Phone

July 22, 2019September 19, 2019 Peter ScargillS3 Pro Smartphone, Umidigi S3 Pro6 Comments on Umidigi S3 Pro Phone

The Umidigi S3 Pro smartphone arrived for me today from Banggood – and very nice looking it is. This large (6.3” FHD – 2340x1080px) phone is inexpensive but sports some great features such as 48Mpx camera images. But here’s a point – it is common to get maximum resolution out…

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Raspberry Pi 3/4 Power

July 22, 2019July 25, 2020 Peter Scargillrpi power monitoring, RPI Supply24 Comments on Raspberry Pi 3/4 Power

For one of my (up to date) Raspberry Pi (SBC) installations, I have a 5v supply able to deliver sufficient power i.e. over 3 amps… I don’t need a full uninterruptible supply, but I thought it would be nice to use one of my USB battery packs in between the…

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Raspberry Pi 4 Arrival

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019 Peter ScargillRaspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 4 Arrival15 Comments on Raspberry Pi 4 Arrival

My 2GB Pi4 arrived from the UK. My good friend sent me a micro-HDMI to HDMI adaptor along with the Pi and a 3d-printed case he made – except he didn’t…. the adaptor is a micro-USB to HDMI adaptor – NOT what the RPI4 uses. Because I’m impatient I’d already…

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Alexa NotifyMe Skill + Node Red

July 21, 2019September 10, 2019 Peter ScargillAmazon Alexa, Amazon Echo, notify me skill6 Comments on Alexa NotifyMe Skill + Node Red

Here’s another winner for Raspberry Pi (though not specifically) and thanks to my good friend Aidan Ruff for taking time out of his busy schedule and bringing this to my attention. As regular readers know, I try to use Node-Red for just about every aspect of my home control here…

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Charger Doctor

July 16, 2019 Peter ScargillGeneral1 Comment on Charger Doctor

No doubt you’ve seen ads for the little “Charger Doctor” gadget from China – well, my advice is to avoid it like the plague.  I have two of them, I’ve used them in the past but never on a Raspberry Pi. It turns out that given a 5.2v input, one…

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Raspberry Pi 4 + Buster

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 Peter ScargillRaspberry Pi 470 Comments on Raspberry Pi 4 + Buster

The new Raspberry Pi 4 is out and about. The new model has something folk have been screaming for i.e. 2GB and 4GB RAM options, not only that but BUSTER, the new version of Raspbian which is not only supported but recommended – and it is backward compatible. In my…

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Samsung Galaxy and Gear Watches

July 2, 2019August 15, 2019 Peter ScargillGeneralLeave a Comment on Samsung Galaxy and Gear Watches

So the latest is that the new Gear 4 watch won’t be called that at all, just Samsung Galaxy watch – and for anyone who has been living in a cave for some time(I have, but a cave with WIFI) can there be any doubt that this is the best…

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Disclaimer

As I have no idea of your level of technical skill or the requirements of your country laws in terms of electricity supply etc, I accept no responsibility for any damage attributed to following advice in these pages.

When dealing with wall outlet (high) voltages you should satisfy yourself that whatever you are doing is safe and if unsure, seek advice from someone who is sure.
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