Can I give the Raspberry Pi any MORE to do? This started off as a plea for help – as I could not find a way to get reliable reporting of changed devices on my network – as you’ll see, now CRACKED thanks to readers and in particular Mr Shark.…
Category: General
Espressif ESP-EYE Board
I remember reading, less than a month ago, a blog entry called “The Mysterious ESP-EYE” in which it is stated that there is no information on the Espressif site on this interesting little camera module. Well, I’ll correct that – there most certainly is now and here’s the link. https://www.espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp-eye/overview…
Phone Charging Epiphany 2
Some time ago after using USB chargers (and USB battery units) since late last century and having been constantly disappointed by their performance when charging phones, I started to get very selective. At the risk of boring experts in here, a short history… The first change I started to make…
The A5X MAX Android 8.1 TV Box
Regular viewers may recall I reviewed a rather nice TV Android box some time ago – the H96 Max Plus. I’m particularly choosy about these units, again regular readers will know that I’ve used and tested a number of mini-board level products such as various NanoPC boards and others for…
Sonoff, Tasmota and Alexa
I always think it is worth periodically re-visiting things you’ve tried before, even when the first attempt led to tears. Things change. And so it was that I pulled out and old (original 4-pin connector) Sonoff Basic recently and gave Tasmota a go. It is some time since I looked…
Geekcreit Large Rainbow Clock Kit
If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for pretty colours, which is why I had to have this Geekcreit Large Size Rainbow Colour Clock DIY kit. I kind of glossed over the kit bit when looking at it, but never mind, I’m up for a challenge (and if…
Raspberry Pi RPI-CLONE Issues
As I normally rave about RPI-CLONE – I thought I’d share the dirty laundry this time. ** Update Jan 13 2019 It seems pretty obvious in hind-sight that the issues I was having below were power supply related and one bad SD card. I’ve just finished my 7th successful backup-clone…
USB DVR
This promising looking 1080P FHD Auto DVR Camera Video recorder with WiFi ADAS G-Sensor from TomTop will apparently work in the car to take videos (rear or front) and store them on a (not supplied) SD card. I installed an SD I had lying around and plugged the USB-powered camera…
Eachen WiFi IR Universal Remote
First reviews of 2019 coming up… starting with the Eachen WIFI-IR Universal Remote (touted as Sonoff but it isn’t Sonoff). This inexpensive unit needs USB power to run and comes with it’s own microUSB cable – the assumption being that you have spare USB supplied lying around (not a good…
Bakeey NY01 HR Monitor Smart Watch
The Bakeey NY01 HR Monitor Smart Watch is looking good up to now – nice, solid looking, big display, single real touch button on the side so no fingerprints on the screen. 1.3” display, matt black, 3 decent main time displays with calendar and other info all in one place,…
Lenovo HF03X SmartBand
I picked the HF03X from Gearbest because it seems to have all the right features in a smartwatch/smartband at a reasonable price. Colour, decent battery charge life, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen levels, sleep, sport, notifications, alarm etc. The last watch from GearBest was the Xiaomi Mi 3 – lovely, gets…
BigTimer 2.06 update questions answered
I’ve been asked questions about output from my Node-Red-Contrib-BigTimer in the 2.06 update and also the new(ish) “timer X” option. Here is a working demo, I’ve added a timer to my desk with a Sonoff BASIC attached and a lamp to test. Output 1 is as you can see working…
T12 Digital Temperature Controlled Soldering Station
Another potential winner from Banggood, or rather would be, if I’d had my act together when ordering. The V2.1S T12 Digital Temperature Controlled Soldering Station is a small, neat soldering station complete with iron and combined bit/element – it looks good and well built. I would advise getting spare parts…
Early Christmas
I must say it does feel a little like Christmas already in the frozen wastes of the Northeast of England. Partly because it is bag-bitingly cold but also as the post came this morning with my new watch (the mother of all watches) which I’ll detail shortly – but first…
H96 Max Plus USB 3 TV Box
The H96 Max+ is, how can I put it, wonderful. It has Android 8.1, both WIFI and high speed Ethernet, 4k HD video (yes, I have a 4K TV) 32GB storage (4GB internal RAM), USB 3.0, HDMI output and more. At the time of writing, it is a very low…
New Toys in the USA
Currently we’re over in the USA for Thanksgiving which seems to be a curious mix of reasons to eat, drink and shop even more than usual. Add to the mix Black Friday and Cyber Monday and apart from the weather (it is truly cold in Chicago right now) this is…
HT-175 Infrared Thermal Imager
I’ve wanted one of these hand held imagers since I heard of the FLIR – but could never justify the cost – NOW I have one of my very own. I’m quite excited. Even then the price – indeed it is Banggood (I’m sure they won’t appreciate that). HT-175 Infrared…
NEW PCB for ESP-GO
You might just like this – I do! Standard problem number one: finding a none-home-made-looking box for the new project. Standard problem number 2: NOT taking a simple on-off light or heater design and turning it into a wife/husband-provoking nightmare with low-voltage boards needing separate mains power supplies. Collectively these…
British v Spanish Mobile Phone Service Providers
Well, of course, everyone has their own story, this is mine. As some f you know, we spent 3 months of our summer in Spain, most of it with me recovering from illness and so probably more than ever, having a working mobile contract was very important this year. We’ve…
The Thermostat revisited
Remember this? I put this Node-Red Dashboard (+ images) stat together January 2017 then promptly forgot about it – thank heavens I blogged the lot, having recently moved home. I find I need a thermostat for our home and yesterday I was in the process of re-inventing the wheel when…