This is a happy story as I’m sure you’re all sick to death of hearing about everyone’s favourite virus – far better to read about great gadgets… This first part is about the new phone I recently received from Banggood, the . Is this a top of the line phone?…
Category: General
The YeeLight and node-red-contrib-yeelite-compat-hue
My first 9W E27 RGB+White WiFi Yeelight from Banggood arrived this week. The plan is to run this on Tasmota firmware but as I’m having trouble (as are others) with my Tuya-convert hardware at the moment I ran it initially on the Android YEELIGHT app. Not ideal but they allow…
Smart Devices for 2021 and Beyond
As most of you will know there are a large number of Smart devices out there today -for example – smartplugs which can be run over Zigbee or WiFi – I’ll concentrate only on WiFi in here. Smartplugs vary from 10A capacity which are good for lighting but only useful…
USB-C to USB 3 Adaptors
Seen these? If not, you might find this useful. Sure all the new portable kit today comes complete with USB-C – but what if your computer isn’t 100% up to date? Still using USB 3? I am, so when I found myself with a spare 7-in-1 USB hub, I figured…
VIGOTEC VG-L7X 20W Laser Engraver for Christmas
The full title of this engraver on Banggood’s site is the Here below is the mandatory box photo complete with thin “manual” which to be fair is generally in decent English. On first opening the package, I found this initial installation paragraph particularly amusing… Moving on -this is what you…
The Sincerest Form of Flattery
I just happened to be looking at Tasmota – in particular the WS2812 addressable LED drivers – specifically using the TASMOTA-DISPLAY.BIN file – and noted the CLOCK mode complete with example. It works – and works well.. Up to now I have a 60-LED addressable strip clock, a Dallas temperature…
FriendlyArm NanoPi R4S SBC
My Raspberry Pi4 is in the process of upgrading to today’s NEW upgrade to Raspberry Pi OS, the artist formerly known as BUSTER. Done – and in case you are wondering – here is the post-upgrade login message in the console. “Linux rpi418buster 5.4.79-v7l+ #1373 SMP Mon Nov 23 13:27:40…
Seeed Studio WT32-S1 Module for Ethernet to Serial
The WT21-S1 is an ESP-32-based embedded serial to Ethernet module. The module includes a full TCP/IP stack – etc etc – basically you can use it to program boards normally programmed serially – where that is not practical, by plugging this board into Ethernet via RJ45 and the relevant IO…
My Node-Red Dashboard Controls for 2021
Some of you may recall my work on Node-RED Dashboard buttons which all started in 2016 and which then (after a health-related break) received an update at the end of 2019 as I started to get to grips with dashboard templates. Well, I’m back to it again and this time,…
Elegoo Uno Super Starter Kit
Just a quicky: possibly you know Elegoo.com for their 3D printers? That’s how I know them – however, they just sent me their Uno R3 Super Starter Kit – which includes an Uno and a shedload of sensors, wires, buzzers, motors, a CD with sample code and libraries… and more…
MaticBox Raspberry Pi 4 Case and accessories
I’m including a quick writeup on the DIN-rail mounting MaticBox because Leapmatic just sent me a couple of samples in the post today. The company are a little unusual in the Raspberry Pi case arena because they claim that “LeapMatic LLC is a high-tech company founded in 2015 by a…
Raspberry Pi 4 Cloning Challenge
As regular readers may know, for backups I swear by rpi-clone for making backups which can instantly take over in the case of a failed SSD or SD main drive on the RPi4. But there is a little more to it. For unattended operation I’m not aware of any current…
Creative Outlier Air V2 Earbuds
My most enduring memory of Creative is the Soundblaster from last century. Since then I’ve not really thought of them very much even though they still do a range of soundcards, speakers, gaming headsets and more – but they just sent me their Outlier Air V2 Earbuds and I just…
Solar Power – the Wemos D1 and 12/24v Battery Chargers
I have a solar power setup for my external lighting here in Spain and for some time I’ve been having some kind of issue with (what I’m now fairly sure is) deteriorating battery capacity. My twin 100AH deep-discharge camping batteries are powered by a 250W 30v (or thereabouts) solar panel…
Haylou GT1 Pro Bluetooth 5.0 Earbuds vs my Xiaomi Mi Earbuds
I’ve been using my Xiaomi Mi buds for some months now – every night (I’m one of these sad types who sends themselves off to sleep with a late night “Daily Show” or similar on Youtube). As for the Mi buds themselves, not much to say, they work well, I’ve…
Node-Red Security – To Be or not To Be
You’ll find plenty of articles on adding or improving the security of Node-Red and countless other programs and utilities. What are not quite so prevalent are articles about removing security. I’ve been using Node-Red for my home automation for years now and frequently get annoyed, as the dashboard security, when…
Bakeey T90 Bluetooth Earbuds Smart Watch Update
This is new – a smartband with built-in Bluetooth earbuds – WELL, THAT’s handy for travelling. This entry is about the . I went out on a limb with this one – never seen anything quite like it but as the T90 was “different” – I simply had to have…
My Home Automation Endeavours – Updated
Skip to “present day” if you don’t want any background:-) As a current Node-Red/MQTT fanatic with some leanings toward HASS, It’s no secret that I’ve been playing with home automation since the mid-80s when a company founded by Aidan Ruff and myself created something called APPCON (for Application Controller). I…
RunCam 5 Orange Ultra-light 4K HD FPV Camera
The full title of this tiny 4K camera is and despite having 4K capability on my mobile phone, decided I just had to take a look at this model. Of course the gold standard for these sports movie cameras is usually thought of as the GoPro – but then similar…
Fun with the MUDI 4G LTE Private Router for Road Warriers
The Mudi Travel Router (GL-E750) is another product from my new favourite router company and is a neat, portable router for business travellers and others who want to secure their data on the go while sharing a mobile connection. First things first – the obligatory opening pics – here it…