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Month: March 2020

Sonoff RFbridge 433

March 31, 2020December 7, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral, RFbridge98 Comments on Sonoff RFbridge 433
Sonoff Bridge with Tasmota

I just received two neat little inexpensive from Banggood, this is a great boxed gadget from for converting 433Mhz RF signals from various devices into WiFi. The POINT of 433Mhz RF sensors of course is that they are very cheap and run for long periods on battery. While I’m here,…

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NanoPi R2S OpenWrt miniRouter – where’s the WiFi?

March 29, 2020August 26, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral25 Comments on NanoPi R2S OpenWrt miniRouter – where’s the WiFi?

The new FriendlyElec R2S is more fully described as NanoPi R2S: a Raspberry Pi alternative that incorporates two Gigabit Ethernet ports. That’s not strictly true, it is not even remotely like an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 4, for example, but with 1GB RAM it runs OpenWrt – the FA…

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A Blitzwolf Blitz with Tasmota and Tuya Convert

March 28, 2020August 28, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral7 Comments on A Blitzwolf Blitz with Tasmota and Tuya Convert
Blitzwolf controllers

Some time ago I wrote about Blitzwolf battery packs and mentioned the Blitzwolf BW-SS1 – a small mains power controller. Well, the company has a RANGE of such controllers including the BW-SHP6 and BW-SHP7 Smart Plugs as well as the new BW-SHP10 (3680w power monitoring in one version). I have…

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Sothing PTC Shoe Drier and Diodoriser

March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral, PTC Dryer
Sothing Shoe Dryer from Banggood

Something new… when you are stuck in the house for weeks on end with no sun (Northeast of England – under lockdown) and instructions to wash clothing and hands whenever you are planning a grocery shopping trip, it certainly comes in handy (and cheap) to have something to dry your…

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H96 Max Android TV Box

March 27, 2020July 16, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral1 Comment on H96 Max Android TV Box
H96 MAX

After a while all of these Android TV boxes begin to look and sound alike – but are they? What about picture quality? I just received a new Android 9 TV box from Banggood – and we did not get off to the best start. On opening the box, hidden…

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Skype Alternatives – DISCORD is the Winner

March 26, 2020April 29, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral22 Comments on Skype Alternatives – DISCORD is the Winner

I am sick up to here with websites telling you “the best alternatives” while not allowing discussion – in other words, thinly disguised adverts. I’ve been a Skype user since long before Microsoft came along and ruined it. Recently we’ve been looking for FREE alternatives to the free Skype that…

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Helpful Engineering Volunteers Against Covid-19

March 26, 2020March 27, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral2 Comments on Helpful Engineering Volunteers Against Covid-19
Helpful Engineering

I’ve been asked today by Aidan Ruff – many of you will have come across the name of my friend and ex-business partner of many years as we work on projects together and so when he asked me to put a word in for a volunteer group called “Helpful Engineering”…

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A Trip Down Memory Lane

March 24, 2020February 13, 2024 Peter ScargillGeneral14 Comments on A Trip Down Memory Lane
Dr Dobbs and Adven-80

Nothing beats virus-related-boredom like a trip down memory lane. This morning I got an email from Japan – specifically from game journalist Koji Fukuyama. Now, I get stuff in the mail all the time and I’m VERY wary of people asking questions out of the blue, not relating to the…

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Teckin SP23 and SP27 Smart Plugs

March 24, 2020August 24, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral83 Comments on Teckin SP23 and SP27 Smart Plugs
Teckin SP27

In 2019 I wrote here (now updated) about the Teckin SP23 (for British plugs and sockets) Smart plugs and commented that whether this ends well or not will depend on the company. Well, they wrote back to me on Nov 4, 2019. It would seem they have binned power monitoring…

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ZemiSmart Smart WiFi LED Table Lamp

March 24, 2020March 25, 2020 Peter ScargillZemiSmart8 Comments on ZemiSmart Smart WiFi LED Table Lamp
Zemismart

This blog entry will be short as there is not much to this desk light. This ZemiSmart offering is controlleable by WIFI or locally, costs maybe £30 on Amazon and – why would you pay that for a desk light? Well, for one thing you have full control over colour…

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Guudgo 21 LED and 47 LED External IP Cameras

March 15, 2020November 13, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral12 Comments on Guudgo 21 LED and 47 LED External IP Cameras
External pan and zoom camera with PIR

I have in my hands two cameras called Guudgo – one has 21 LEDs and the other has 47 LEDs. For reasons well beyond me the 21 LED camera uses Android APP called “YCC365 Plus” while the 47 LED camera uses downloadable Android APP “V380 Pro” – there will no…

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More Node-Red Dashboard Success

March 15, 2020March 16, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral, Node Red, node red dashboard, node red ui, node-red33 Comments on More Node-Red Dashboard Success

This is a blog entry from 2016 that I’ve just updated.. In an even earlier entry the subject of Node-Red Dashboard, you’ll see I can hide that top menu if needed (the blue menu is great on a phone – not much use on a thermostat)… and then I discovered…

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Geekcreit 3.5″ LCD Touch Screen, Case and Pen Kit

March 8, 2020March 14, 2020 Peter ScargillBanggood4 Comments on Geekcreit 3.5″ LCD Touch Screen, Case and Pen Kit
RPI 3 LCD Screen and case

Just a brief mention of the Geekcreit 3.5″ TFT LCD Touch Screen+Protective Case+ Touch Pen Kit for the Raspberry Pi – Banggood sent this to me a while ago – if you are planning to use an RPI3 and need a small screen this is a good an option as…

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Cheaper Raspberry Pi 4 , New Flasher and More

March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral14 Comments on Cheaper Raspberry Pi 4 , New Flasher and More
Raspberry Pi 4

Update: Raspberry Pi now has it’s own image downloader and flasher – https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ called “Raspberry Pi Imager” – Note separate links for Windows, MAC and Ubuntu respectively within the above – odd that they chose Ubuntu and not Debian – given that Raspbian is based on the latter – but…

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A quiet refurbishing day

March 2, 2020March 14, 2020 Peter ScargillGeneral7 Comments on A quiet refurbishing day
PC and router

Recently I’ve been catching up on my backlog of reviews and you could be forgiven for thinking that’s what I generally do. Far from it, today I’ve had a quiet day refurbishing. A couple of weeks ago, in order to do some testing before sending some kit off to Spain,…

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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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