Ok, I know, that was one hell of a title. What I just received from Banggood on returning from our mini-holiday at the beach was this ESP32 board and it occurred to be that since I’ve started to get to grips with using the ESP32 and especially with using special…
A Constructive Tasmota Weekend
A week or so ago I was struggling to get everything I wanted in one ESP8266 running Tasmota – for example, the tasmota-sensors.bin file has lots of sensors and very little display capability while tasmota-display,bin has very few sensors. One of the guys suggested I tackle doing my own Tasmota…
Sonoff POWR3 5500W Controller – It’s a Monster
Back in 2019 I reviewed the Sonoff POWR2 unit – an upgraded mains controller which, as against typical power controllers which handle 10A MAX (good for lighting, not so good for heating controls such as immersion heaters), handles 15A MAX along with power monitoring (at a push and for non-inductive…
Plug-In TV Simulator From Redline Security
A new device in the UK called the Defender Plug-in TV Simulator has just arrived for me here in Spain, from the UK. The device emits an ever-changing series of lights to imitate a real television. The consumer site for this product is called Redline Security and no I’m not…
Android File Copying – Watching Paint Dry
Am I just being unlucky here? I copy huge volumes of files on my Windows 10 (64-bit) PC all the time – and today I decided I had FAR too many phone-related files (downloads, photos and video) all over the place. I started by taking my PC “screenshots” folder” and…
Raspberry Pi PICO – would you bother?
The “Raspberry Pi PICO” trades on the name “Raspberry Pi” which many of us find to be a cost-effective home -automation hub, thankfully widely supported by lots of third parties even though the Raspberry Pi Foundation is sticking with their “for educational use” mantra. I wrote this when the PICO…
Xiaow Q8 1080P IP Camera
This entry is an update on my original 2019 post about the Xiaow Q8 HD 1080p 360 degree panoramic IP camera with ONVIF support, InfraRed night vision and AI motion detection from Xiaomi Youpin. No, I’d not heard the last part of that name either. Here’s a stock photo to…
Midweek Banggood Round-up
First item in today’s postbag – my new Lithium-powered, 2700v Mosquito Swatter. And what’s special about that? We have a mains powered mosquito/fly killer which sits in front of the bedroom and runs all night – had it for some time now – we also have disposable battery-powered swatters which…
Aqara Opple – Learn with Peter
Anyone here old enough to remember the BBC show “Watch with Mother”? Well, I just acquired a pair of Aqara OPPLE wall switches from Banggood – 1 panel – 2 buttons – Zigbee (3.0) – no wires, Chinese-only instrucions – so why not “learn with Peter”!! First things first, above…
Banggood Fun – Aqara Opple Triple Zigbee Switch
Aqara Opple 6-button Wall Switch offers a total of 30 actions – very useful
Pete’s First World Problems and a new “Wingle”
Observant regular visitors may notice I’ve a couple of existing reviews to complete and I’ve not been writing at anything like my usual speed over the past week or so. Well, I’ve been having my share of first world problems – here goes: Firstly the weather here in Southern Spain…
Xiaomi Mijia 1S Second Generation Smart Vacuum
Updated August 2021: For a couple of months now now we’ve been testing the very neat 2nd generation Xiaomi Mijia 1S Robot Vacuum Cleaner – I’ve provided a Banggood link here but I should say immediately that I’ve recently been told that Banggood cannot sell Xiaomi in the USA –…
Ravpower Goodness – their 30W 2 Port Wall Charger
I’ve written about Ravpower in the past several times – I like their stuff. Another item that just arrived for me but has actually been sitting waiting for me in the UK since Christmas (thanks to lockdowns etc) – thank you for the samples Sun Valley – so this won’t…
Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro
This is about the Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro laser engraver with fixed focus 20W (input) laser, shipped to me by madethebest.com – important specs include the ability to engrave wood board, paper board, black acrylic, leather, food, stainless steel, powder coated metal and more with claimed cutting ability including…
SoundLiberty 80 Bluetooth 5 Noise-Cancelling Earbuds
The part number of these delightful AI Noise-cancelling earbuds is TT-BH080. I was supposed to review these over Christmas 2020 but they were shipped to the UK where I would have been had it not been for Covid! I’m in Spain and they were sent along with some other good…
OBSBOT Tiny – AI Powered, Auto-Tracking Webcam
Well, I was going to start this by showing you the unpacking of this new, exciting webcam – but I got over-enthusiastic about opening the packaging and ripped it to shreds. Suffice it to say the camera was well-packed. I’ll start off by saying (a) I’m not on commission and…
Insta360 ONE X2 Camera Utter Idiot’s Guide
I have in front of me the Insta360 One X2 camera from Banggood – and no it’s not a sample – I bought it and I’m waiting for the selfie kit (purchased separately) to arrive. I paid (in Euros – I’ll leave readers to do the conversion) €376.66 for the…
Printer Ink Rant
On the subject of inkjet printers (probably definitely your printer) this guy has made a decent video about problems with ink and reliability. I usually America to have greater issues with planned obsolescence than Europe but the idea is sound. I’ve been banging this drum since probably before you heard…
1NCE SIMS – SOMETHING NEW
Do you have an IOT setup and maybe no WiFi – do you want a SIM so you can attach it to a cheap 3G/4G modem – or an old phone (or new phone for that matter) to do nothing but send the odd SMS and/or some data – but…
Zigbee Development – The Really Big Update inc ZZH
Some time ago I wrote about the Sonoff inexpensive Zigbee dongle and various Zigbee hubs etc. At the time I was experimenting with HA (Home Assistant) and a load of other new things and didn’t really give Zigbee the attention it deserved. In here I then came back to Zigbee…