A quick writeup about the V2.1S T12 Digital Temperature Controller Soldering Station courtesy of Banggood – the unit comes minus mains power cable and with a single all-in-one tip – but looks very sturdy. So above I’ve shown what you get with the package, below I’ll show the unit assembled…
GL-iNet Spitz 4G LTE Smart Router
I’m impressed already – as a long-term occasional user of the GL-iNet Mango travel router, I thought I’d give their upmarket products a look – there is a lot more to this router than it first seems. The Spitz is LOVELY. Check pricing in your area. Tiny and open-source, the…
M5Stack Core 2 ESP32 IOT Development
Regular readers may recall a couple of years ago I wrote about the M5Stack – https://tech.scargill.net/the-m5-stack/ and here we are again with the M5Stack Core 2 – the ESP32 IoT development kit which comes complete with 2 inch touch display. The new, upgraded Core2 has 8MB or RAM, a 390maH…
Blitzwolf BW-UP2 USB 3.2 Flash Drive
This morning in the post, arrived a Blitzwolf BW-UP2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Flash Drive. As a first simple write test, I copied one of my videos from my PC D: drive to the BW-UP2 – ok, not very scientific – but the copy time took exactly 8 seconds for…
Xiaomi ZAJIA Auto-sense IR Induction Water Saver
I LOVE getting new toys. The original Zajia was sent to me in January 2020 by Banggood and it turned up in the UK in February. The battery-powered, USB-charged Zajia clips straight into the tap in the kitchen or bathroom to provide proximity-controlled water. If you are on a water…
Mustool MT8208 2-in-1 Multimeter and Oscillosope
A couple of years ago, regular readers may recall I took a look at the Mustool MT8206 2-in-1 Multimeter and Oscilloscope. Well, things change and now there is the improved MT8208 2-in-1 Multimeter and Oscilloscope – how’s that for a dynamic change of name 🙂 They have of course improved…
Blitzwolf BW-S16 75W PD Charger
To give this beauty its full title – BlitzWolf® BW-S16 75W 6-Port USB PD Charger. Hard to believe our local stores are still selling USB chargers that are not even Quick-charge, never mind PD (Power Delivery). These days, such terms are mandatory to gain my interest. This monster from Blitzwolf…
Single-Use Disposable Masks
Ok, I know, this is a tech blog – but given the heat we have in Southern Spain right now, sometimes the best thing to do is either soak in the pool, write reviews or better – both at the same time. Right now I’m catching up with a backlog…
FriendlyArm R2S and NEO3
After writing a less than stellar report on the original R2S and giving the board to my Italian friend Antonio, he managed some success with the board but not without it suffering excessive heat. Well, it looks like the company have been working on that and have sent me a…
Argon ONE Case for Raspberry Pi 4 Updated
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…
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?”…
PiVPN, Pi-hole and ZeroTier
This blog entry started off back in 2019 as a simple comment on the amazingly useful PiVPN and has branched out a lot since then – now covering ZeroTier. I’ve no association with any of these companies. Before we start, here is a link to the various sites for PiVPN,…
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…
More Blitzwolf Goodness
In the mailbag I have two USB goodies from Blitzwolf – courtesy of Banggood – a Blitzwolf® BW-AC1 3A 90°Right Angle USB A to Type-C Data Cable and a BlitzWolf® BW-TH5 7 in 1 USB-C Data Hub Firstly I needed the cable as I’ve just thrown away a black type…
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…