Reddit and other locations are full of conflicting stories about the venerable Microsoft Surface 4 Pro concerning upgrading to Windows 11 – mostly from people who’ve not actually tried the conversion. I noted a number of writers saying they’d never trust Microsoft again and how betrayed they felt. Here is…
Month: January 2024
TOPGRO Mini Gaming PC i9-9880H NVIDIA GTX1650
I recently bought the above-named PC from Amazon.es to replace my Mini PC which has performed well but not a lot of use for games. The TOPGRO machine cost me €969 (no screen or keyboard, just the base unit) and came complete with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of…
Cheap Sonoff-lookalike BASICs and Aubess Zigbee
No doubt I’m not the only one, despite being a long-term Sonoff BASIC user, who’s noticed that AliExpress and Temu have what look like cheap Sonoff knock-offs running as low on Temu as €2.00 on special offer and not much more on AlieExpress. Good deal? Well, for the sake of…
Aqara Smart G4 Video Doorbell and FP2 Presense Sensor
I just received my first packages of the new year, a duff screen protector from AliExpress, some USB shelf-lamps from the same (more on that later) meanwhile from Aqara, my eagerly-awaited Aqara G4 Smart video doorbell and their FP2 Presense sensor products. The G4 Video Doorbell After recovering from the…
Another Tasmota APP for Android
From time to time I get ESP8266/ESP32 control units for example Sonoff BASIC lookalikes – basic mains control boards – which I usually de-Smartlife and convert to Tasmota – also Tasmota-pre-fitted bulbs – and more often than not, I end up with more than I need. Sometimes, dirt-cheap Sonoff-BASIC look-alikes…
Christmas Already? SONOFF Goodies and WLED Lighting
Well, not quite and I always thought people put their lights up from December 1.. but, not to be left behind… thanks to WLED, Tasmota and my cheapy projector – it’s a start…. and if WLED interests you – check out the WLED MoonModules project. This post December 20, 2023…
Algolaser 5.5w DIY Laser Engraver Kit
Some months ago, Algolaser contacted me re: their 20w laser engraver – and while I still plan to progress this in the future, for now they asked me if I’d build and review their DIY Engraver KIT with the 5.5w laser. As you’ll see looking around the blog, I’ve reviewed…