The plan was to simply to produce a really tiny video to show you the new remote control (for the M6 gimbal) which arrived in the post yesterday from Hohem. That expanded out to this explanation, photos and a link back to my Hohem M6 entry as well as a…
Category: General
Hohem iSteady M6 Gimbal – Could this be the BEST?
Readers may know I’ve looked at several other AI Gimbals including the inexpensive PowerVision S1, Hohem’s own iSteady v2 and the rather exciting-looking Zhiyun Smooth 5S. But if you’re in a hurry – YES, the M6 is the best I’ve had to date… read on… Background So up to now,…
Switchbot Hub 2 and Pan/Tilt Cam 2K
At first, I took the new HUB 2 out of the box, plugged it into a handy micro-USB supply, turned it on and remembered instructions I’d heard about removing the MK 1 hub before adding the new one to the Switchbot APP (on my phone) I checked to see if…
The Imou Cell 2 4MP Lithium-Powered WiFi Camera Revisited
For some reason I was expecting a huge ugly camera when Imou asked me to look at this one In January 2022 – and I was worried in case it would be out of place on one of my external walls. I should have known better. I hade high expectations…
Spring Is With Us and New Toys Are Here
I’ll soon have lots of new toys to play with but for today I’ll talk briefly about some new AliExpress purchases.. here at Bedrock I have typical Spanish rural electricity – there’s a wisdom that they don’t have live and neutral mains wiring here but thanks to some new toys…
Holidays are Here Again
I’m about to head off for a few days holiday in Segovia in the north of Spain so I thought I’d leave you with some thoughts while I go off in search of culture… Do you get as sick as I do of YouTube headlines which contain “… will change…
Fenvi AX1800 WiFi 6 Adaptor
Well, I was doing some 4G testing (covered elsewhere in the blog) and when I realised that my Windows 11 Beelink Mini-PC was not picking up a very fast signal from the 4G router, I took into account that my WiFi adaptor is an old 2.4Ghz-only USB 2.0 version (I…
The Sonoff iHost Smart Home Hub – revisited
Just another Zigbee Bridge? or Bluetooth bridge? No. The iHost originally ended up on my doorstep back in March 2023 and at the time I commented that this looked WAY more interesting. The iHost arrived with a 32GB Kingston “Select Plus” microSD. I also commented that the unit “does not…
Zhiyun Smooth 5S Gimbal Combo
I have in front of me the best looking smartphone gimbal I’ve come across to date. Also the most complex. If you just want to know about the gimbal without context, skip to “Enter the Zhiyun Smooth 5S”. Why a Smart Gimbal for a Smartphone? As you’ll soon gather, I’m…
The Aqara Zigbee 3.0 Smart Pet Feeder and the TVOC Sensor
As you may know I’m increasingly becoming a fan of Zigbee where possible (as against WiFi) because with the latter, signal quality varies depending on availability of WiFi access points. I manage, but as I’ve fitted more and more Zigbee smart sockets and Zigbee lights around the house – by…
More from AliExpress – Zigbee Electronic Hygrometer
Much as I hate to promote AliExpress, I took a chance and bought one of these devices and it was only €9.19 (Euros) delivered to me in Spain – ordered February 18, 2023, delivered March 2. The chance I took was that it might only work on the Smartlife APP…
More Cheapies from AliExpress and a VALUABLE Experience
I couldn’t help myself – AliExpress had one of those “3 items for a fiver” sales and I simply couldn’t stop myself. The Not Worth-a-Light Solar Grasshopper First on the list – a solar grasshopper. Marvelous idea for a toy to annoy the cats… the grasshopper works (worked) in the…
My ESPHOME Adventure
Back in 2021 I wrote about experimenting with the LILYGO TTGO ESP32 development board and my first attempts at using ESPHOME as against my firmware of choice Tasmota. Well, I then went heads-down for several days of learning – with several false starts I may add. The short version of…
New Smartlife Desk/Wall Temperature/Humidity Display from Banggood
This is just going to be a quick one. Not seen much of Banggood recently but now that the Chinese New Year is over and hopefully we’re on the other side of the Chinese Policy reversal on Covid, it seems that Banggood are bouncing back. So here, I have a…
Another Fun Aqara Weekend
I LOVE getting new tgadgets from Aqara. Before I start, lets get this out of the way.. You can skip to New Aqara Devices if you’re familiar with the company, Zigbee2MQTT etc. Aqara Aqara sell IOT products in 192 countries and I was first introduced to them by purchasing (almost…
The Smart Shelly Button 1
And what’s a Shelly Button 1? Not to be confused with the sadly now defunct Shelly Button which was a white plastic case to put around the original Shelly One or similar. I have of course used the Ikea Zigbee Smart button (remember the nice plain button that they stopped…
AliExpress RGB vs Athom RGB Lamps
This post came from my need-to-know why AliExpress-sourced RGB bulbs (E27) were less than half the price of Athom bulbs of the same power. The Athom bulb in the link above is one of several of their 15w models I use around the house and they are pre-programmed with Tasmota…
WiFi 6 GL-iNET AX1800 (FLINT) Router – Ongoing
I know – I wrote about this router model some time ago BUT THERE’S EVEN MORE – READ ON… While I was over in the UK at Christmas (where my first GL-iNET AX1800 Flint router remains, fully operational with firmware v3.2), my Convexa-S here in Spain fell off the wall…
Is ChatGPT the End of Creative Writing and Blogging?
I’m quite new to ChatGPT 3 but have played with several other packages capable of writing code, creating general text and more (I’ve been fascinated with AI before the term was in general use). I have of course played with the various AI programs that create art from simple text…
Blog Newsletter – Starting from Scratch
Hi everyone and let me start by apologising to the many of who you have at one time or another genuinely signed up for the weekly news brief due to a phenomenal amount of spam which started to worry my service provider, I’ve had to wipe the large subscriber list…