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Month: April 2021

Astrolux VC04 Versatile Charger

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral5 Comments on Astrolux VC04 Versatile Charger

Don’t you love it “Astrolux 4-solt Li-ion Battery Charger” – I think we can safely assume that should be “4-slot”. Inside the manual, the company refers to the inputs which are USB-C, micro-USB and “Lighting” – well, as a non-Apple user that kept me going for a minute – they…

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The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 Revisited

April 30, 2021April 25, 2022 Peter ScargillGeneral6 Comments on The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 Revisited
Mi Band 6

I have had a Mi Band 4, a pair of Mi Band 5s and at the end of April 2021 I received the brand new . I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. In April 2022 the price seems to have gone up and it is out of…

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Blitzwolf BW-GC8 Gaming Chair with RGB Lighting

April 28, 2021April 28, 2022 Peter ScargillGeneral
Blitzwold BW-GC8 Gaming Chair from Banggood

This from Banggood is a far cry from the first chair I reviewed, the BW-GC1. Opening the box it was immediately obvious that this chair was taller (I was not going to need the supplied headrest) and generally the chair looked upmarket – but it was not until I’d finished…

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Instar IN-9008 Full HD MQTT Wired/WIFI IP Camera

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral12 Comments on Instar IN-9008 Full HD MQTT Wired/WIFI IP Camera
Testing the Instar Camera

In February 2020 I received a very nice IP camera from INSTAR Deutschland (Germany) GmbH – the IN-9008 Full HD camera (1920×1080 HD) has turned out to be a winner. I’ve had several emails with support and comments from Mike Polinowski of Instar about the “first ever” MQTT IP Camera.…

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18650 Lithium Rechargeable Battery Lengths

April 22, 2021April 23, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral11 Comments on 18650 Lithium Rechargeable Battery Lengths

I won’t bore you with the usual warning about Lithium battery safety and as for capacity – that’s a whole other issue – we all know that some suppliers make ridiculous claims for 18650 capacity (if you see a capacity rating of over 3500maH, there’s a good chance you’ve been…

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Worx WX240 4V USB Mini Screwdriver

April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral2 Comments on Worx WX240 4V USB Mini Screwdriver
Worx Lithium Screwdriver

What’s exciting about a Lithium screwdriver? Basically not a lot, but if Banggood had simply wanted to send me the bits – I’d have had them… you can never have too many screwdriver bits. Anyway, the certainly ticks the right boxes – as usual I’ll let you (if you are…

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Blitzwolf BW-SHC3 PTZ 1080P Outdoor Camera

April 20, 2021May 25, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral

To give this camera its full title, it is the . And yes, that’s a link to Banggood – full technical spec therein 🙂 If you are interested, you may have just read my short review of the Imou outdoor camera, which while being smaller and looking different to this…

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Imou Bullet 2C Camera Motion Detection Camera

April 19, 2021April 28, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral4 Comments on Imou Bullet 2C Camera Motion Detection Camera

I received this Bullet 2C external camera directly from Imou some weeks ago and initially dismissed it (that was a mistake as it happens). At that time, I could find no information on how to get it to work outside of its own APP, nor how to get it to…

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SQLITE3 Raspberry Pi Problems and Solutions?

April 19, 2021June 17, 2021 Peter Scargillnode-red, sqlite, sqlite329 Comments on SQLITE3 Raspberry Pi Problems and Solutions?
SQLITE3 on Node-Red on Raspberry Pi

If like me, upgrading Node-Red (in my case on Raspberry Pi) is often problematic – then it may well be worthwhile reading this update – at last solving a long-lasting issue including SQLITE and other installs which rely on NodeJS. If you regularly upgrade a Node-Red installation which makes use…

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Rock T20 Universal Multi-function Dual USB Socket

April 16, 2021April 19, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral3 Comments on Rock T20 Universal Multi-function Dual USB Socket
Rock T20

The is a travel socket with a difference (info in the link but as Steve below in the comments says, this is now discontinued on the Banggood site even days after I received mine – a shame as it is a nice adaptor and they don’t seem to have anything…

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ESCAM QF288 1080p WiFi IP Camera

April 15, 2021May 25, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral5 Comments on ESCAM QF288 1080p WiFi IP Camera

Reader Paul Richarson wrote a comment in an earlier camera blog of mine which triggered me to get hold of an from Banggood as he suspected the camera is 3* optical zoom, not 8* optical zoom…. and he’s right – the ads claim 8x – I like the camera –…

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Seeed WIO Terminal and Battery Pack

April 14, 2021October 22, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral5 Comments on Seeed WIO Terminal and Battery Pack
WIO Terminal and battery pack

Some time ago I received a Wio terminal from Seeed and I remember thinking “great, finally a decent colour display system, cased, with decent IO capability – but why didn’t they put a battery in it?”. Well, now they have – or rather they have brought out a plug-in battery…

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The CRICKET from ThingsOnEdge.COM

April 14, 2021November 25, 2022 Peter ScargillESP826635 Comments on The CRICKET from ThingsOnEdge.COM
thingsonedge.com

PLEASE NOTE – IT LOOKS LIKE THE COMPANY MAKING THE CRICKET, CEASED OPERATION IN SEPTEMBER 2022 – I LOOKED UP SYLWESTER BALA – COFOUNDER – on LINKEDIN! Of course we’ve all seen this form factor before – ESP8266 on a board with power and antenna, FLASH etc.. The ESP-12 is…

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Mobile Hotspot thoughts and discussion

April 7, 2021March 12, 2023 Peter ScargillGeneral17 Comments on Mobile Hotspot thoughts and discussion

To start the ball rolling, here in rural Southern Spain where we have NO landlines on the outskirts of our village – for years we have used something like WiMax – that is, the local service provider (Habland) has an aerial in town which supplies broadband wirelessly to properties on…

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88VF Max Lithium One-Hand Chainsaw

April 7, 2021September 15, 2021 Peter ScargillChainsaw, General7 Comments on 88VF Max Lithium One-Hand Chainsaw

The exact unit I’m going to refer to is currently sold out but this shows several similar chainsaws and includes an identical model. This is a cute gadget. Now I should point out that unlike larger models, this (see link higher up – and thats a model number, not a…

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Flsun® Q5 3D Printer Kit – Easy-Peasy

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral
FLSUN Q5

The from Banggood sounds on the surface like an all-day project (but it isn’t). If you have already assembled an SLA 3D printer, depending on your skill levels, you may know that this can be a treacherous task, which is one reason my first Tevo Tarantula Prusa I3 3D Printer…

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Tasmota upgrade inconsistencies ?

April 5, 2021April 21, 2021 Peter ScargillGeneral8 Comments on Tasmota upgrade inconsistencies ?
Tasmota

I wonder if any Tasmota fans out there have any thoughts on something I’ve pondered many times but never put into print until now? So… I just updated a smartbulb from Tasmota dev version v9.3.0.1 to v9.3.1.2 using the web OTA. My screen showed the usual OTA lag after the…

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Solar HD1080P IP67 Camera

April 2, 2021January 24, 2023 Peter Scargillbanggood camera, IP6732 Comments on Solar HD1080P IP67 Camera
IP67 Solar Camera

This device was installed way back in summer 2019 and this update is December 2020 with bits added April 2021 – the Solar powered HD 1080p Wireless PIR waterproof security outdoor IP67 camera from Banggood. I’ve resurrected this article as I originally gave it a bad review as I felt…

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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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