I just received a little package from Itead (Sonoff) including their DW2-Wi-Fi door/window sensor. DW2 RF sensor and RFBridgeR2. Nothing special about this lot? Well, the DW2-Wi-Fi has WiFi and Bluetooth built into it. OTT for a door sensor? That was my exact reaction (but read on). I figured they…
Category: General
IESAFY Folding Solar Power Pack with Torch
Ok, not the most imaginative titles I’ve ever devised, but I have little communication from the company (Bonic) who sent this power pack to me – so basically I’ll give you some headline specs and photos I took this morning. As this is the first item I’ve received in the…
BlitzWolf® BW-OLT6 4-Heads Solar Sensor Wall Light
Why do I keep buying solar lights? after many years in denial, I’ve finally admitted to myself that while cheap solar lights work just fine in dry, sunny Spain, back here in rural Northeast England they are a complete waste of time. (a) there isn’t enough sunshine and (b) there…
Blitzwolf BW-GS3 Stereo Sound Bar + RGB
It’s a bit sad when I get excited mainly because something turns up quickly – but recently Amazon has been either out of stock of things I want, or delayed and/or more expensive than normal… and of course, AliExpress goods have recently been on unfeasibly long lead times to the…
Ravpower PD Pioneer 65W 2-Port Wall Charger
Not sure what happened here – back on May 4, 2020 I wrote about a Ravpower charger and somehow ended up with the info on the RP-PC133 – correct for the white charger you see below… but somehow I missed the stunningly good RP-PC136 which is the BLACK unit in…
SHELLY EM Contactor Power Control with Dual Power Metering
I recently took posession of a Shelly EM device and a pair of Shelly EM accessories – i.e. split core current transformers. The EM product is straight-forward enough – 2 pairs of polarised inputs from the transformers, live and neutral input – and an output (which I’ve not yet used).…
The Downright Amazing Aufero Laser 2 Engraver
Here it is, out of the box, shiny plastic bags removed but initially unassembled – the latest from Ortur – my new favourite laser engraver company (since I got the LM2 Pro) I have no doubt that some regular readers have had enough of me rabbiting on about my Aufero…
Ortur Y-Axis Rotary Roller YRR 2.0 – in SPADES
Well, I wasn’t expecting THIS start to February 2022 – I just opened the post and not one but TWO rotary roller kits. I have the Aufero Laser 1 Engraver here and I’m frantically making wooden door signs for our cottage – covered elsewhere – not to mention the Ortur…
Wireless Video Camera Doorbell with APP Revisited
Note: There is now far more in here than just a camera review – read on: Here’s a or to give it the full title from the Banggood website: “Wireless Camera Video Doorbell Home Security WiFi Smartphone Remote Video Rainproof”. I love it. Late in 2019 I received this wireless…
GUUDGO 4CH 1080P Wireless Surveillance System Kit
I’ve never had an NVR before so this is a novelty with a rather nice feature – the wireless cameras MESH which means I can have the NVR in my house-end office and the last camera at the very far end of the building even where I have no WiFi…
More Fun with the Laser 1 Engraver and my Two Trees Table
I only just finished updating my Aufero Laser 1 article – and yesterday, from Banggood, my new mesh base arrived, assembled. Inclused in the pack is a full size aluminium plate and 6 adhesive pads. No documentation so I had to make guesses, I cut the pads in half, I…
Fun with the New Ortur Aufero Laser 1 Engraver
When I started the blog entry for this new entry-level laser engraver from Ortur, shipped to me by Zbanx back in November 2021, I thoroughly expected to spend half the day putting it together. I’d even thought of doing a video of the assembly process. Well, I was wrong –…
Shelly Plus 1 and Plus 1PM Power Controllers
Way back in August 2019 I wrote about the Shelly 1 controller produced by Alterco Robotics in Sofia, Bulgaria. This at the time was one of a small but growing number of competitors to the likes of the very inexpensive Sonoff Basic. Later on, in March 2021 I followed this…
The Death of a Sensor and other Tales of Woe
We tend to rely more and more on our clever electronics these days – but here’s a timely, cautionary tale! My friend MAT over at NotEnoughTech has just TODAY written about the Tonga volcano and one of his Zigbee sensors which includes not only temperature but also a (generally) not…
52PI Raspberry Pi Mini Tower NAS Kit
I’m really not sure what to say about this 3D-printed kit – I’m not sure what I was expecting but not quite this. I was going to do a video but the way things turned out, a series of photos made more sense as I was putting this together. Here…
Aqara temperature sensors and Node Red – Info Overload?
AsI was sitting checking my Aqara Zigbee temperature sensors (blogged a while ago – the CR2032-powered model WSDCGQ11LM) using the Node-Red nodes for the job, I noted that if I covered the sensor with my hand for a few seconds, I’d get a reading – sadly, not just that but…
Audew AX-6601 Handheld Vacuum from Banggood
Ok, not exactly a SMART device but it’s the first thing I’ve had from Banggood this year (UK stock) so I thought I’d give it a quick comment with pics in here – my wife gets quite excited when something arrives which she can use!! The “AUDEW Rechargeable 3500PA Mini…
PerfectPrime Tiny IR501 Thermal Camera Add-on for Android
I’m no stranger to PerfectPrime cameras – I’ve had several of them over the years and today I have the tiny IR501 in front of me – on my Pocophone X3 NFC. The link above will tell you all about the IR501 Multi-Point Dynamic monitoring Thermal Camera for Android Phones.…
The All-New GL-iNET FLINT Router GL-AX1800
By now I own or have owned and reviewed most GL-iNET router products. I started with the little travel MANGO router a few years ago and worked my way up so that now GL-iNET are currently my favourite routers (earlier in my tech life I was a great fan of…
Meross Smart Plugs in 2022 – The MSS110
It’s quite a while since I did my original write-up on Meross Smart Plug devices. I have a new one here in the UK, . This device has a UK plug on it and is SLIM – and that’s important – I have lots of smart plugs which are so…