I’ll let readers decide if we are on the cutting or bleeding edge here. Having received a 6-pack of ZemiSmart new GU10 Smartlamps to test, I installed them in my kitchen where I have a pair of ceiling 3-lamp non-smart fittings and duly replaced the six normal GU10 LED lamps…
Category: General
The Predictable End of Free Apps – eWeLink?
I read today that eWeLink, the app used by Itead for their Sonoff products, is looking to offering a “paid” option. “What!?!” I hear you say? But we already paid for the hardware… Well, for some time now, I and others have been writing about taking the time and effort…
A ZemiSmart Weekend
Today, I received a shipment of goods from ZemiSmart including a small but surprisingly bright 5W E27 RGBW Smart Bulb, a WiFi Smart Socket (max load 16A – 1875W (non-inductive)) with twin USB (5v@2A) and a really neat battery-free (yes, battery-free bell-push) Smart Doorbell. The WiFi Smart Bulb Well, I…
Weather Data using Node-Red and APIs
With the forthcoming descent of Dark Skies into an Apple-Only universe (a sad loss for the rest of us) I’ve been looking into alternative APIs to use for grabbing weather forecasts and related data. While I struggle with the MET Office behemoth, here’s a little information on yr.no I’d not…
Ravpower PD Pioneer 61W Wall Charger RP-PC112
Wall chargers for phones are not something I generally get excited about but as this handles “Power Delivery” (a new standard for charging) for phones AND has enough power for a Raspberry Pi 4 or modern tablet/notebook, here goes. The RP-PC112 UK version is a white, neat-looking USB-C wall charger…
Sonoff Mini with Tasmota versus the competition
You can’t get away from it, the iTead products are inexpensive – and sometimes that is very important. But are they the best solution for Home Control? Well, that depends… I think they are very good… Sonoff products have always been inexpensive. But bear with me. At one time the…
Sonoff RFbridge 433
I just received two neat little inexpensive from Banggood, this is a great boxed gadget from for converting 433Mhz RF signals from various devices into WiFi. The POINT of 433Mhz RF sensors of course is that they are very cheap and run for long periods on battery. While I’m here,…
NanoPi R2S OpenWrt miniRouter – where’s the WiFi?
The new FriendlyElec R2S is more fully described as NanoPi R2S: a Raspberry Pi alternative that incorporates two Gigabit Ethernet ports. That’s not strictly true, it is not even remotely like an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 4, for example, but with 1GB RAM it runs OpenWrt – the FA…
A Blitzwolf Blitz with Tasmota and Tuya Convert
Some time ago I wrote about Blitzwolf battery packs and mentioned the Blitzwolf BW-SS1 – a small mains power controller. Well, the company has a RANGE of such controllers including the BW-SHP6 and BW-SHP7 Smart Plugs as well as the new BW-SHP10 (3680w power monitoring in one version). I have…
Sothing PTC Shoe Drier and Diodoriser
Something new… when you are stuck in the house for weeks on end with no sun (Northeast of England – under lockdown) and instructions to wash clothing and hands whenever you are planning a grocery shopping trip, it certainly comes in handy (and cheap) to have something to dry your…
H96 Max Android TV Box
After a while all of these Android TV boxes begin to look and sound alike – but are they? What about picture quality? I just received a new Android 9 TV box from Banggood – and we did not get off to the best start. On opening the box, hidden…
Skype Alternatives – DISCORD is the Winner
I am sick up to here with websites telling you “the best alternatives” while not allowing discussion – in other words, thinly disguised adverts. I’ve been a Skype user since long before Microsoft came along and ruined it. Recently we’ve been looking for FREE alternatives to the free Skype that…
Helpful Engineering Volunteers Against Covid-19
I’ve been asked today by Aidan Ruff – many of you will have come across the name of my friend and ex-business partner of many years as we work on projects together and so when he asked me to put a word in for a volunteer group called “Helpful Engineering”…
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Nothing beats virus-related-boredom like a trip down memory lane. This morning I got an email from Japan – specifically from game journalist Koji Fukuyama. Now, I get stuff in the mail all the time and I’m VERY wary of people asking questions out of the blue, not relating to the…
Teckin SP23 and SP27 Smart Plugs
In 2019 I wrote here (now updated) about the Teckin SP23 (for British plugs and sockets) Smart plugs and commented that whether this ends well or not will depend on the company. Well, they wrote back to me on Nov 4, 2019. It would seem they have binned power monitoring…
Guudgo 21 LED and 47 LED External IP Cameras
I have in my hands two cameras called Guudgo – one has 21 LEDs and the other has 47 LEDs. For reasons well beyond me the 21 LED camera uses Android APP called “YCC365 Plus” while the 47 LED camera uses downloadable Android APP “V380 Pro” – there will no…
More Node-Red Dashboard Success
This is a blog entry from 2016 that I’ve just updated.. In an even earlier entry the subject of Node-Red Dashboard, you’ll see I can hide that top menu if needed (the blue menu is great on a phone – not much use on a thermostat)… and then I discovered…
Cheaper Raspberry Pi 4 , New Flasher and More
Update: Raspberry Pi now has it’s own image downloader and flasher – https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ called “Raspberry Pi Imager” – Note separate links for Windows, MAC and Ubuntu respectively within the above – odd that they chose Ubuntu and not Debian – given that Raspbian is based on the latter – but…
A quiet refurbishing day
Recently I’ve been catching up on my backlog of reviews and you could be forgiven for thinking that’s what I generally do. Far from it, today I’ve had a quiet day refurbishing. A couple of weeks ago, in order to do some testing before sending some kit off to Spain,…
Owon ODP3033 Bench Triple Power Supply
Updated Feb 29, 2020: And why would anyone write about a power supply? Not the most interesting subject, but like many boring things such as backups, essential. I created a short video several weeks ago about the Owon P4603 – a single channel job of particular interest as it has…