The Argon ONE case is very pretty (but then it is not cheap so you’d expect that). It has variable control over the built-in fan and I had to ramp up the settings as the fan was initially off even though the case was very warm – now the whole…
Category: General
SSD Cloning on Raspberry Pi 4 Updated
The subject of this blog entry is, in the main, about cloning (for backup mainly) from one Solid State Drive (SSD) on the Raspberry Pi 4 (RPi4) to another SSD. Why SSD? They are MANY times fater than SD, as low as twice the price of SDs and are supposedly…
General Itead Sonoff ramblings – now with Zigbee
Sonoff Zigbee Bridge Early in June 2020 I received my long-awaited Sonoff Zigbee bridge along with Itead‘s pre-programmed Zigbee CC2531 USB dongle which means I am starting to write about low-power-consumption Zigbee devices including Itead devices (also some from ZemiSmart). In this update I’m including the new Sonoff sensors. First…
Alexa Comprehension Issues
I’ve been meaning to write this down for some time. Has anyone else noticed similar issues with Alexa? I just said “Alexa, turn on, erm, mancave” – where “mancave” is a group of lights. The “erm” threw Alexa off-course as you’d expect. “What would you like me to turn on?”…
New Blitzwolf Lights from Banggood
The first of the two new lights I’ve just received is the Blitzwolf BW-LT21 Smart LED Light Bulb. Ok, so its a bulb… so what? Well, not only is the white very bright, the colours are bright, too. All too often with RGB bulbs, the individual colours are pathetic –…
Sinilink XY-WFMS ESP8266 Board with MOSFET
I have a couple of cheap Sinilink 30mm by 46mm boards based on ESP-12 modules which take variable voltage ranging 5v-36v DC and can supply several amps out. Now if you are wondering what a “Sinilink” board is – I urge you to take a look at this earlier blog…
USB Charged Electrolytic Disinfectant Generator
Something new! To give this gadget its full title: 84 Disinfection Water Maker Electrolytic Generator Sodium Hypochlorite Disinfectant Liquid Making Machine USB Charging Phone Sterilizer this product from Banggood generates disinfectant liquid from nothing more than common salt and water using a process called electrochlorination. Given the rather unique circumstances…
Blitzwolf BW-SS5 1-Gang Relay
With so many smart switches and sockets out there, how do you differentiate your product? It looks like Blitzwolf have done just that. Small enough to fit inside a back-box and comes complete with a detachable clip–on bracket – the BlitzWolf BW-SS5 1 Gang/2 Gang Two Way 10A 2300W WIFI…
PC Security and Gatekeeper
Not something you’d really expect to see on my blog, I’m writing this short piece on the Gatekeeper product by Untethered Labs as I spend more time than I like to think about, keeping my equipment safe from outside intrusion and when GKChain offered to send a sample of their…
ESCAM PVR008 Auto-Tracking H265 IP Camera
No, this is not new. Back in October last year, Banggood sent this little, inexpensive WiFi Escam auto-tracking PTZ pan-and-tilt 1080p night vision camera to me and for reasons beyond me I did nothing with it. I’m sorting my stuff to take away with me this summer and I was…
RX-3 Lite V2 Body-worn CCTV Camera
ReWire Security recently sent me their model RX-3 Lite V2 Body-worn CCTV Camera. In case you’re wondering what that is – it’s a small body-worn audio-video-recording camera weighing less than 150g (plus harness) – offering 11 hours of HD video recording on a single charge. Yes you could record yourself…
A Better Raspberry Pi Case?
Over the years I must’ve had every cheap plastic case going for my various Raspberry Pis, from clear cases through bright red expensive looking perspex, black, orange, you name it. Until now, sizes were pretty much universal and would even fit some of the Not-Raspberry PIs. But now, all change.…
More Zigbee Learning (or not)
Elsewhere I’ve just started to write about Zigbee – the low-energy RF communication alternative to WiFi and 433Mhz radio control of various smart devices. To make a start, I’m using my normal Raspberry Pi arrangement with the addition of a small pre-programmed dongle from Itead which works with the widely…
Blitzwolf BW-SS4 1-2-way Smart Switch
Maybe I’m just fascinated with the name Blitzwolf but here I am with another gadget from the company – I use lots of Blitzwolf gadgets – I didn’t even bother with the Blitzwolf APP which will do exactly what you expect of a smart controller, Instead I took a chance…
New 8GB RPi4, USB3 Boot now WORKS on all RPi4
What’s new? If you read through you will find I finally got USB boot all working using a 2GB RPi4 with various ways to boot my RPi4 – “rpi-cloned” from one master SD. The SD, SD-in-USB3, USB3 stick, USB3 HD,USB3 Hybrid Drive, USB3 SSD. Why bother with all of this?…
Blitzwolf BW-PSSD1 256GB USB3 SSD
A very exciting start to my week… my new (first ever in my case) portable Solid State Drive just arrived for my Raspberry Pi 4 – BlitzWolf® BW-PSSD1 SSD 256GB USB 3.1 Gen 1 High Speed Hard Drive with Type-C According to Royal Mail the unit came from Online Retailer…
ZemiSmart Lamps , Tasmota and Retail Therapy
The original of this blog entry has lots of interesting stuff but as I’ve now been through even MORE RGB lamps from various suppliers – this requires an update (June 14, 2020). Zemismart, as you will see further down, do several decent RGBW lights of the type that offer proper…
Fun with Colours
Colour fun I’ve been playing with these oddly named programs for ASCII text and pretty colours on my Raspberry Pi machines – check them out: cowsay figlet toilet lolcat For example: sudo apt-get install -y cowsay figlet toilet On the RPi as it happens, the first two were already installed.…
Hands-free washing using inexpensive foam
This subject is more easily covered in video so here goes – all the links are included, I’m having great fun with these (now very appropriate to the times) gadgets which combine to provide a clean, hygienic hands-free washing experience – quite topical right now. Above, an inexpensive USB-powered hands-free…
Owon XDG2035 Function Generator
I just received my Owon XDG2035 only to realise they yet don’t have it advertised on their UK site – however, Eleshop EU has it advertised at 289 Euros + tax (and their photo is better than mine – other than that I have zero connection with them) – I…