I came home yesterday to more goodies from Banggood – the first being a new Blitzwolf smartplug. As it happens I’ve a need for a new one with power monitoring. If you’ve seen my blog about Spanish electricity and putting everything on “cheap” rate where practical, I recently put my…
Category: General
UGREEN T3 HiTune Earbuds
Regular readers will recall I wrote about Ugreen X6 Hybrid Earbuds a while ago. Ok, so you have the link to the original article – you may recall me raving about them – then nothing. That’s because I just wear them every day – they simply work, sound good, charge…
Meross Home Control – Revisited – Again
In March 2020, just about the time the term “Covid” became a thing, I received several IOT units from a company called Meross (designed in California, made in China as I noted on one of the boxes) including the UK version of their MSS310 power-monitoring Smart Plug, their Smart Radiator…
Sculpfun S6 Pro High Precision Laser Engraver
Or how to assemble a new laser engraver when your only workbench is already full… Here’s Banggood’s link (no commission as usual – I do this for fun, not to run a business) and a variation on their description. SCULPFUN S6 Pro laser engraving machine, ultra-thin focus wood and acrylic…
UGOOS UT8 Pro Android TV Box – The Long Haul
I’ve had many TV boxes over the years and learned lots of things to watch for – like different versions of Android some of which have the full Play store, some don’t. Some last, others don’t. Some have hardwired Ethernet available, some don’t etc. I just discovered something early April…
More Mi – the Redmi Buds 3 Pro Earbuds
I’ve been impressed by and stuck with my UGREEN HiTune X6 Hybrid Active noise-cancelling earbuds for some time now – but yesterday, a set of Redmi Buds 3 Pro arrived in the post – so – firstly what do these Xiaomi Redmi Buds 3 Pro earbuds look and sound like?…
Mi for Me? Redme Smart Band Pro and Watch 2 Lite
I can see it’s going to be one of those weeks. Until recently, I’ve seen nothing of note in the watchband space (to use my least favourite marketing word) since My Mi Band 4, then 5, then 6 which in their time IMHO beat the competition hands down. I’m wearing…
The Monday Postbag – Mijia Electric Precision Screwdriver
Here’s the link and official description – XIAOMI Mijia 350mAh 200rpm Electric Precision Screwdriver Type-C Rechargeable – 2 Gears Repair Tool with Magnetic Storage Case & 24pcs S2 Steel Bits Sometime in April 2022 this USB-C rechargeable screwdriver and bits set is/were on special offer, that might be dead by…
Just a Quicky – Tasmota Remota
This is a quicky because normally I only post about stuff I’ve spent far too much time on – but in this case I’m going to talk about a new(ish) APP in the Android Play Store. While playing with Tasmota on my home IOT system I just HAPPENED to stumble…
ESP32 Pico D4 Development Kit
I just made a short video (see below) about this ESP32-based board from Banggood…. and off-the-shelf it runs a set of 25 serial RGB LEDs and is VERY pretty with it. Of course, being me I had to go to the next step and try to put TASMOTA32 on it.…
Sonoff SwitchMan R5 (using Mini R3 as a Gateway)
SwitchmanR5 is a battery-powered multi-function wireless wall switch which needs a “gateway” to talk to normal IOT WiFi. There are a limited number of devices which can act as these gateways so so firstly, I opened my handy the Sonoff MiniR3 and plugged it into live and neutral. Immediately it…
LEDYi 24V LED COB Strip (For All Your Lighting Requirements)
Sorry about that, I remember a famous (at least in the Northeast of England) AD for J.T. Doves – a Builder’s Merchant who’s catch-phrase (in a Northern accent) was (and probably still is) J.T. Doves – for all your household requirements. I couldn’t resist paraphrasing that for the blog title.…
Switchbot – for the times you can’t just plug something in!
I’ve wanted a Switchbot for AGES and hey, ZBANX sent me a couple of Switchbot Bots to play with Back in 2022. Nice. I have a February 2023 update on the Switchbot thermostat at the end. In case it’s not obvious, the Bot is a little battery-powered box with a…
Xiaomi Redmi AC2100 and Xiaomi Mi 2100 Routers
This is just a story which started off badly but now with an increasingly happy ending. Be warned the blog entry is at in-depth WiFi router nerd level – and is probably going to expand over time – there is already some great feedback in here.. Back around May 2020,…
Ulefone Power Armor 14 Phone from Hekka
~This is a phone for p[eople who drive tanks!! I guess that shows my age (the tanks reference was from a Kenny Everett sketch). The Ulefone Power Armor 14 is a budget smartphone – it is not going to change the world but it IS SOLID. This is the second…
ME160H Tuya Smart WIFI LCD Colour Thermostat for Electric/Water Floor Heating
The ME160H Tuya Smart Wall LCD Thermostat is great up to a point but read on… I just received this unit and put it on test yesterday. All was looking well, it is full of features missing on some other smart stats and the price is ok but I believe…
The Hotwav Cyber 9 Pro Rugged Phone
Super hi-res cameras? NO. Latest tech? No. Solidly built? Yes. That about sums up my opening experience with the (fairly new model) rugged Hotwav Cyber 9 Pro Android phone which arrived this morning from Banggood. My Cyber 9 Pro came with 8GB RAM, 128GB ROM and has the following cameras:…
The Mighty Longer Ray5 Laser Engraver
Page 1 – Introduction I’d hate anyone to think this blog was turning into a laser engraving site – it’s not – I just happened to get two engravers sent to me at the same time. I’ve just finished my work on the (supplied almost in one piece) little NEJE…
Important Changes to Scargill’s Tech Blog
I figured this needed uploading as I’ve made a few changes to the blog thanks to some great feedback from Antonio (Mr Shark). A number of subjects have attracted so much feedback that the comments sections were getting to be unfeasibly large so I’ve introduced comment pagination and at the…
LilyGo TTGO T-Internet ESP32 Board with Ethernet, PCIE and SIM card slot
I just HAD to have this LilyGo TTGO ESP32 Board with Ethernet and SIM Connector for one main reason – I’ve used hundreds of ESP8266 and ESP32 boards but never EVER seen an ESP32 with an Ethernet connector before. So, I opened up the package, plugged the board into an…