This new new Switchbot battery-powered rechargeable floor-standing fan is for the most part GREAT. It’s quiet, neat-looking and works just fine stand-alone, in the Switchbot app, with the Switchbot Hub 3 desk unit and to an extent – within Home Assistant. The fan turned up unexpectedly this morning – I…
Month: May 2026
A Tale of Two Battery Packs
More precisely, two battery pack types. Just a little something that some of you might find useful. As you may know, we moved into a new home a little while back with no electricity so I bought a generator and an Oukitel lithium power unit (wish I’d bought a Bluetti)…
Sonoff S61S Outdoor Matter over WiFi Smart Plug
According to the Box this new Sonoff product is a Matter-compatible outdoor smart plug that runs on Wi-Fi, with: smart timer, Matter compatibility, energy overview, electricity bill tracking, overload protection and overcurrent protection. This is the EU version but there will be versions for the UK and USA etc. Details:…
Wispr Flow – speech recognition finally matured?
Original article November the 5th 2025. Updated today, May the 10th 2026. See the important update at the end. I got an ad this morning (original date) for a company selling speech recognition software that claims that now you can type as quickly as you can think. So I’m using…
NOUS – A Name to Remember – Part 2
Firstly I’m going to check out the NOUS Door/Window Sensor E3 Original article July 2025 – revisited May 2026 Immediately a nice-looking device – runs on Zigbee and I have of course used Zigbee2MQTT though NOUS no doubt have their own Zigbee hub. I’ve found Zigbee2MQTT running in Home Assistant…
Mains Extensions and Modern Smart Plugs – Problem
Is it just me or do others have the same problem? I’ve looked up EU and UK mains extension leads as I have lots of smart plugs, chargers and similar to test and use. In almost all cases I end up having to sacrifice every other socket as the smart…
The Aqara Hub M100 Compact Thread Border Router
The Aqara Hub M100 is Aqara’s latest ultra-compact smart home hub, designed to bring modern connectivity standards like Matter and Thread into even the simplest setups. Unlike traditional hubs, the M100 comes in a USB-stick form factor, making it discreet, portable, and easy to deploy anywhere you have a powered…
To Starlink or not to Starlink – that is the question
We’ve moved in January this year to another location in our small village in Spain… and once again, though we are just a stone’s throw from houses (on hills) which have fibre, there is no chance of having a pylon fitted to get broadband – and so we continue to…